


Warriors of Vermillion : The Beginning of the End

by Miyu_Kagirohi



Series: Warriors of Vermillion [1]
Category: Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Agito, Final Fantasy Type-0
Genre: Chocobos, Espionage, Foul Play, Friendship/Love, Gen, Kids sent to war, Magic enhancement, Touching Romance, Tragic Romance, War, War Crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 41
Words: 54,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27525100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyu_Kagirohi/pseuds/Miyu_Kagirohi
Summary: Taking place in 837 R.G., Orience's Rubrum and Milites are at war once again due to an abrupt ending to their one-year ceasefire agreement. Due to the nature of the war, Lorican Alliance and Kingdom of Concordia refused to take part whatsoever in the war, and thus remained neutral and maintained a passive defensive alliance with Rubrum.Ten years prior, Rubrum reformed its military system, turning the army into a reliable professional fighting force by splitting the army into three separate Legions, all led by experienced commanders. Additionally, Class First of Akademeia, also added to the military ranks, serving as an elite auxiliary flexible force.Dive deep into eye of the storm as Class First witnessed first hand the horrors of war. Stepping into the cold, harsh, and unpredictable battlefield, what fate awaits these cadets that are aiming to become Agito?
Series: Warriors of Vermillion [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2011771
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Enter the Class First

Ign. XXIII 837 R.G.

By the end of the year 836 R.G., Orience was finally at a state of peace as the war between Rubrum and Milites were temporarily put on a ceasefire, despite their truce, it didn’t stop the two from racing each other, creating powers to rival one another for months. Rubrum lost their precious “Four Champions” two years prior due to an unfortunate tragedy, leaving only one survivor, Kurasame “The Ice Reaper” Susaya. After the incident, Kurasame continued his cadet days until his graduation day, he decided to take upon a surprising path when he enrolled on Akademeia Special Academy of Commanders. Spending only one year at the academy, he was able to graduate with flying colors. He was immediately assigned to the vacant Class First commander spot, as their previous CO was reassigned to the Legion as one of their commanders. During the same period, 8 fresh cadets spanning from Classes Second to Eleventh were to be transferred to Class First as replacement for their seniors who just graduated, bringing up their totals into 18 cadets.

Before Kurasame went to his class, he took breakfast alongside his best friends, Emina and Kazusa, and also his trusty companion, the tonberry. The three talked about Kurasame’s debut as a commanding officer of a specific class.

“Nervous? Commander Kurasame~?” Emina asked.

“Indeed I am. Let’s hope it all goes well, considering the fact that Class First often sent on the battlefield alongside their CO.”

“About that… your magic, how are you feeling? Don’t you feel old yet?”

“I am feeling well, I feel that my magic is still working well, Kazusa. So, you don’t have to worry about me dying anytime soon.”

“Fascinating. You should visit me sometime at my lab, my friend. I wanted to gather some information on how you’re still as strong as you were,” Kazusa said, smirking.

Kurasame shook his head in annoyance. “Over my dead body, weirdo.”

The hour finally arrived for him to start his lecture, Kurasame and his tonberry headed to the classroom after he excused himself from his friends. Slowly, he walked towards the Class First lecture hall, on the way, he could feel the nostalgia during his time as a cadet. That day, he was walking not as a cadet heading to his class anymore, but rather a commanding officer that was about to lead his cadets towards their expected paths.

Class First, the top cadets, they were the chosen ones, occasionally called upon the battlefield to directly assist The Legion, putting their lives on the line every time they step their foot on the cold, dangerous, and unpredictable battlefield. There were legends about a class stronger than Class First, they were the cadets wearing the notorious vermillion red capes, the legendary Class Zero, but everyone knew this was only a fairy tale as there were neither proofs of their existence nor a person alive to prove so, while Class First had been existed for generations.

Before Kurasame had his breakfast, he was examining the details of the cadets he would be working with. Among the 18 of them, he seemingly was interested in one particular cadet by the name of Faia Nishimura, a former honor student of Class Third, transferred to Class First one year prior to the juniors’ transfer. Believing in his potential, he appointed him as the class leader as his first order of business upon entering the lecture hall.

Because it was the fresh cadets’ first week at Class First, Kurasame freed them all from the burden of lectures, allowing them to adjust to the new environment by asking the seniors to show their juniors around.

“I would gladly do so, Mr. Ice Reaper,” one of the seniors, Yoji, said.

“Please, if you have to refer to me, please use my proper name.”

Faia said, “Please forgive him for his insolence, commander, he was born a dummy.”

The other classmates chuckled after Faia said so.

Later that afternoon, Faia sat on ready room with his friends that he knew ever since his trainee days; Tomu, Ayane, and Jenifa. They ordered four dishes of the notorious “Tuna on the Rocks” they had been craving for weeks now, it was expensive, so it was worth the wait for all of them. For these four, despite they’ve known each other for a long time, these three were part of the 8 cadets who recently joined Class First, they were essentially Faia’s juniors. During the middle of their conversation, a cadet from Class Second asked to join them in their table.

Faia glanced up the table. “G-good afternoon, representative, what brings you here today?”

“So, these are the new faces of the handpicked. How are they doing, Faia?”

“They haven’t done much yet. But I think they had their first impressions.”

“I was shocked that our CO is the great Ice Reaper himself,” Ayane replied.

Tomu raised his hand. “The bookshelf’s bigger than the bookshelf at Class Eleventh.”

“I love wearing this light blue cape,” Jenifa said, somewhat proud.

Their response had Representative Miura smiling. “I can see the excitement in your very eyes, comrades. Best of luck for all of you.”

As soon as she left, Faia sighed a breath of relief, seeing this, the three wondered what could that be, was he nervous? Moreover, he was always like that while he talked with the Representative. The curious Jenifa had the courage to ask him what was that all about, she didn’t get the expected answer as he was changing the topic instead. Ayane and Tomu followed along, not giving much thought about it, but for Jenifa, she was still curious on what was that all about.


	2. The Race for War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Orience is aware that Rubrum is on the back foot in terms of military techs, with Milites being technically a hundred year ahead of them. Rubrum have to come up with new techs of their own if they want to stand a chance in this war, this part of the job is one of the Akademeia's Archsorceress, Arecia Al-Rashia's responsibility.

**Ign. XXIV 837 R.G.**

The next day, a team of scientists from the sorcery division helped by several Class Eleventh cadets were finally able to replicate a device used by a late Militesi general during the Dominion’s rescue operation 2 years back, during that time, Cadet Kurasame Susaya was nearly captured by the Militesi army after his magic was suppressed by the exact same device, but for an unexplained reason, he was able to escape after single-handedly disarmed the whole base by himself with a single block of ice. On that fateful day, he received the nickname “The Ice Reaper”.

Later on, a scientist went to Arecia’s quarters to give her an update on their development.

“Very good. I’ve read through your report. Do you have any ideas how we can counter-measure this device?” Arecia asked.

“Of course, Doctor. We’ve spent a lot of time creating this.” She then handed Arecia a sample white cape, like the ones used by the cadets.

“Okay, I know this is a standard cadet cape. What’s so special about it?”

It wasn’t an ordinary cape, it was fitted with a counter-measure device to tamper the Crystal Jammer’s capability, the scientist admitted that the device wasn’t as near as perfect just yet, but they were making progress as the device proved to partly work against the recreated Crystal Jammer. With further development, this device might be able to turn the Crystal Jammer obsolete.

“We have Class First. We can use them. One more thing, we need something else, Doctor.”

“What is it?”

“As you’re aware, the Empire is getting more dangerous by day. What we invented is only for defensive measures.”

Realizing what the scientist mean, Arecia said, “I have an idea. Can you also make their capes record their magic usage on the battlefield?”

“It shouldn’t be too hard. What are you planning, Doctor?”

“I might be able to create stronger spells for them to use. In order to do so, I need some data from the battlefield. Relying on verbal reports is simply not enough.”

“Alright. Consider it done, Doctor.”

That day, Arecia held a meeting with the scientists, devising their plan of experiment. At one point, one of the scientist explained why Class First cadets were the ones fitted the criteria. It turned out that before their transfer, they would be separated from their current classmates to take part in what they quoted “brutal and harsh” training with one sole purpose of ridding their fear of deaths completely. As a result, their lack of fear of death allowed these young cadets to actively take part on the Dominion’s war operations unlike the cadets from other classes who were only meant as defensive measures at Akademeia, a perfect trait that Arecia needed from them.

Dusk arrived as everyone headed back to their dorms after a tiring day. There was some light left, Ayane decided to go the terrace alongside Tomu to enjoy the view. Miura happened to be there, also enjoying the view.

“Ah, the new faces of Class First. What brings you here today?”

“We were just enjoying the sunset, Representative.”

“I see, we’re on the same boat I suppose.” Miura glared towards Ayane. “Say, your name is Ayane Kurayami, right?”

“Yes. That would be me.”

“Do you happen to have a trainee brother by the name of Reon? I was at the administration earlier and I see that you two shared the same last name.”

“That’s… correct. He is my little brother. He was just recently enrolled.”

“I see. Best of luck for him, Cadet Kurayami.”

“Thank you, Representative. I have to admit I’m nervous for him, though.”

Time went by like a wind, blowing ever so quickly that a week passed. Class First finally attended their first lecture by Kurasame. Unsurprisingly, there was not much could be delivered to Class First as it seemed that they were already taught pretty much everything during their Class First entry trials.

At the end of the lecture, Kurasame announced an urgent news regarding an increase of Milites’ activity within the borders. The Dominion sent several envoys to question their motives, but in response, the Militesi officials claimed it was a mere routine patrol, contrary to an intel that suggested that they were _gathering intelligence regarding the terrain_ for an unknown reason.

“We can’t stand watch as they gain ground. Diplomatic approach is fruitless and now The Central Command sanctioned a counter-intelligence gathering operation for the cadets, appointing you Class First cadets to take part. Over the course of 6 days, 3 of you will be sent to the frontlines to spy on them. Be prepared as we will begin tomorrow, any questions?”

Faia raised his hand. “Shouldn’t this task fall into Intelligence Division’s hand?”

“Good question. There is a possibility of skirmish as you’ll be in close proximity with them. As we know, the Intel Division couldn’t stand a chance if that happens.”

“What about our communication, commander?” Tomu asked.

“Representative Miura herself will pass the details of your missions from the central command, all orders will come from her by the time of your mission.

“Furthermore, I’ve already split your duties, you can read the schedule in front of the class. Good luck and reassure The Dominion of Class First’s reputation.”


	3. Field Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Class First's juniors are finally about to step their foot on the battlefield, with their hopes high, they eagerly prepared themselves for the occasion. Faia, on the other hand, is a senior, he will lead his junior friends as the last team to infiltrate the enemy lines.

**Ign. XXIX 837 R.G.**

Over the next few days, the Class First cadets ran their operation on the borders. For 5 days, it was rather uneventful for them with nearly zero intel gathered, the fact that the Imperials didn’t do anything suspicious didn’t help them either. On the 6th day, Faia and his colleagues marched secretly into the borders, as scheduled. For 5 hours, they waited for nothing until they decided to return back, upon receiving Miura’s permission, they started their journey towards Akademeia.

On their way back, a voice was heard from behind a tree, “ _Well, lookey-lookey here... it’s been awhile since the last time I saw a cadet._ ”

Faia conjured his weapon and his colleagues followed suit.

“ _You look like rookies to me, let me see how you guys handle Militesi’s ordinary pawns._ ”

The mysterious figure shot his rifle all over the place, the sound was so loud that the Militesi patrol was alerted by it, the alarm was sounded and the patrol rapidly descended upon the source of the gunfire, exactly at the cadets’ location.

“ _Well then, good riddance, kids!_ ” The figure then disappeared into darkness, leaving the three out in the open.

Tomu looked further behind them. “By the Crystal! He alerted the whole battalion!”

“Dammit’! Class First, Commencing Battle!”

“I thought you’ll never ask!” the two replied.

They all hid themselves in the tree line, after being granted the use of lethal force by Miura, Faia gave the signal to commence the ambush. Using an improvised hit-and-run tactic, Tomu and Ayane attacked them simultaneously from behind, trying to confuse them, as the patrol turned around, Faia saw the opportunity and charged out of the tree line, killing any unsuspecting soldiers. The attack was so organized that the patrol got confused, as a result, the inexperienced troops retreated while the veterans stood their ground.

In the heat of the battle, Tomu turned on his COMM. “Say, guys… the Representative… what are your thoughts about her?”

“Seriously?! Now?! She could hear you, you know?”

“Nah, we’re fine. We’re cut off for now,” Tomu responded while he glided around the battlefield, he was somehow able to keep his cool while he joked around.

“As a girl, I have to say that she’s not your usual girl.” Like Tomu, she also kept her cool in the middle of the battle. Deep inside, Faia was amazed by their calmness, he finally realized that they deserved their spot at Class First.

“Not you too, Ayane.” Faia sighed. “Fine, if you have to ask me, I have to say that she’s kind of cute.”

“There you go. Say, Ayane… Jenifa might be right about this.”

Faia frowned. “About what?!” he asked, at the same time he spotted a projectile fired towards him, his instinct saved him as he managed to dive towards safety.

“Whoops, I see an enemy, time to switch on. We’ll talk about this later, Faia.” Tomu said, laughing over the COMM.

Finally, their concentration was back onto the enemies. The forest was so dense that even the veterans couldn’t find where the attack came from. Amidst the enemy ranks, Faia spotted the enemy commander close to Tomu’s position, he gave a signal towards Tomu to focus his attack on the commander’s position, at the same time, Ayane noticed the raw recruits ran back towards the battle, prompting her to ask Tomu to deal with the commander swiftly.

With his blood rushing, Tomu surged like a flash from his hiding spot and stabbed the commander from behind with his lance, killing him instantly, as the enemy soldiers turned around, Tomu was already back at his hiding spot. With their commander dead, the enemy’s second in command issued a retreat for the rest of them, not wanting anymore casualties. They had no clue that there were only 3 cadets that the Imperials quoted “a whole bunch of kids sent to war” attacking them.

In ten minutes, the battle was already over, having only three of them doing all the work, Faia and his friends felt tired like never before. Suddenly Miura called them back, requesting their report on the situation. As the squad leader, Faia reported that they managed to kill 30 Imperials in 10 minutes. Back at the central command, Miura was shocked by the fact that it was only Ayane and Tomu’s first assignment.

Upon checking the remains of the soldiers, Tomu managed to recover a note from one of the fallen soldiers. Shockingly, it was indeed true that the Empire was gathering intel regarding the terrain, here at Meroe, their suspicion would soon come true as one of the report claimed that the Legion currently possessed 10.000 troops at the borders. Eliminating the possibilities, Tomu theorized to his friends that the Empire was planning an assault on the border, as for the time, it was still unknown.

After checking themselves for wounds, they started their journey back to Akademeia once again, this time with plenty of intel regarding the enemy’s movements. As they were out of the forest, they were halted by the same figure earlier, this time in the light. He wore the standard uniform of a Militesi soldier, but it had scratches everywhere. Tomu had the impression that this soldier was a rogue soldier judging by his appearance.

“Congratulations! You passed my test! Without a single scratch in you too.”

Faia summoned his weapons again in alert. “Who are you and what do you want from us?!”

“Oh? Pardon me for not introducing myself.” The soldier then opened his mask, revealing multiple scars that spanned across his face. “Morse, the forgotten hero of the Empire, at your service. Relax, I’m unarmed, I won’t hurt you.”

As Morse started leaving, he stopped and glanced back towards them.

“Say, I’ve had a debt to settle with an old friend of mine. Anytime you get yourself in trouble in here, I’ll be there to help,” he said, smirking somewhat terrifyingly.

“Wait, what?” Ayane asked in a shocked tone, “Why are you planning to help us?”

Without replying, Morse disappeared into the woods, leaving the trio baffled on what his actual intentions were.

Marching hastily, they eventually reached Akademeia at night, hours behind schedule with Kurasame waiting for them at the fountain plaza, alone. He ordered them to go to the classroom immediately. He heard everything from Miura, with that confrontation, the ceasefire should inevitably be cancelled and the war would be continued once again. Kurasame advised them to be prepared to be questioned by the Cadetmaster regarding their actions. Faia hesitantly explained the incident, and at one point he mentioned Morse, shocking Kurasame very much, it almost as if Kurasame saw a ghost that time. Judging it all made sense, Kurasame promised to vouch for them should they were questioned by the Cadetmaster.

At the same time, Arecia watched from afar with a cadet fully covered with disguise, they were talking about Faia, Ayane, and Tomu. Strangely enough, the information about that mission shouldn’t be known by people outside The Consortium, Intelligence Division, and Class First cadets. Arecia knowing it wasn’t strange, but as for this particular cadet, it was rather strange. After several exchange of information, the cadet appeared to be handing Arecia stack of documents containing everything to be known about Faia, Ayane, and Tomu.

The next day, as expected, the ceasefire ended early due to the unwanted lethal confrontation between the patrol and the cadets by the time of ceasefire. Rubrum responded by recalling the Legionaries to their respective Legions. On the bright side, Class First cadets finally got what they wanted as they finally get to perform joint training with the Legionaries later on. When the time comes, they would be called upon the battlefield to support them.

Later that night, Kurasame went to the ready room alongside his tonberry. He couldn’t shake the thought about the ghost of the past Faia mentioned, “Morse”. Faint images of him fighting Morse flashed through his mind continuously, slowing him down from finishing his favorite “between truth and lies sandwich”. Moments later, Kazusa and Emina arrived there, they went to the ready room as soon after hearing from a tribune that Kurasame had been in the ready room for too long.

Kazusa tapped his shoulders. “Lost in thought again, _Mr. Commander Kurasame_?”

“Kazusa? Emina? I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you two were here.”

“It’s fine. We just got here anyways,” Emina replied, “what’s on your mind?”

“A ghost from the past came back to haunt me,” –Kurasame took a sip from his drink— “You know, that rogue soldier from the Empire, Morse.”

“I see. What is he up to this time?” Kazusa asked.

“He met with my cadets on the field today, he gave us a message, saying he would help us the next time we got into trouble at Militesi soil.”

Emina felt uneasy, she seemed to remember something. Kazusa glanced towards her in suspicion. “What’s the matter? What’s that look for?”

“N-no, nothing at all. I was just confused. Why would an enemy help us, anyways?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. It’s not like he owes us anything.”

Fearing the conversation getting too deep, Emina decided to enlighten the mood by offering the two a drink, in which they accepted. For the rest of the night, they discussed how life went on for them ever since Kurasame’s incident two years ago. After their graduation, they didn’t have much time to see each other, despite the fact that they enrolled on the same special facility. Once they graduated from the special facility, the trio were split even further with each of them holding great responsibilities on their new positions.

Regarding these three, at Akademeia, there were surprisingly a lot of cadets that were older than them. These three were so exceptionally great that they graduated ahead of their time, the average age for a cadet to graduate from Akademeia was around 22 to 23, while Kurasame and his friends graduated at the age of 20, this alone made their names forever etched into the history of Rubrum. Actually, there were others that graduated way ahead of their time too, but they usually spent several quiet years before eventually rejoining Akademeia, either as an officer or instructor, unlike the three who immediately continued their studies to advance on their careers.

It was getting late as Kazusa asked them to leave together, Emina accepted but Kurasame told them he needed some more minutes before heading back. They then left him alone, again with his tonberry. He stayed some minutes later until he felt sleepy, as he started to head back, a voice was heard behind him, telling him to take a seat.

Kurasame frowned. “Dr. Arecia? Now this is a surprise, it’s unusual for you to appear in here.”

Arecia glanced towards the tonberry. “What a cute thing,” she said, but she didn’t want to waste their time talking about his pet, she continued, “anyway… I will jump right to my point, listen carefully.”

Arecia told him what her intention was, that she suddenly appeared this late. At first, she informed about the prototype capes Class First would wear later on after its readiness. And then, there was one more thing she wanted from him, it was three particular cadets from Class First that she wanted to lend from Kurasame for “experiment”.

Kurasame seemed hesitant, as he was offered the same thing in the past. “Very well. You have my approval,” he said. “One thing, though. Did the Consortium know about this?”

“The capes? Yes, they know,” she said, after blowing a thick smoke right towards Kurasame’s face, “the other matter? No.”

“I see. It’s just as I suspected. But, my approval still stands. Just be careful, doctor.”

“Thank you, Kurasame. You know, my offer still stands to this day should you want to be like them too.”

“The answer’s still the same, Doctor. I’m getting older, I don’t know if I can be much use to you. Besides, I’m not interested anyway.”

Arecia smirked. “That’s too bad. But, thank you for your honesty.”

What was that other matter Arecia spoke about? It was a secret that only several people know at Rubrum, countable by fingers and Kurasame was one of them. Few months after the incident of the Champions, Kurasame was offered something by Arecia that he rejected, saying that he was content with what he had back then.


	4. Dreams Above Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faia, Ayane, and Tomu is about to take part Arecia's grand experiment. Arecia, ever the secretive one, is about to turn these cadets into something no one ever imagined in their lives. What repercussions await these cadets?

**Aqu. VII 837 R.G.**

During the conclusion of that day’s lecture, Kurasame informed that Class First would soon retire their current capes as they would be given a new one, he informed clearly what those new capes were for. Additionally, Faia, Tomu, Ayane were informed that they were expected by the sorcery division later that night, acknowledging the secrecy of that information, he did not inform them before all of their fellow classmates left the lecture hall.

Soon after Kurasame’s announcement, Faia went towards the ready room alongside his Ayane, Tomu, and Jenifa, as usual. Upon sitting in the counter, the chef gave him a friendly nod.

Seeing the familiar sight, the chef said, “The usual 4 dishes of ‘Tuna on the rocks’, Nishimura?”

“Not this day, I suppose. I’m short on gil,” Faia said, rubbing his head.

“In that case… ‘between truth and lies sandwich’ then?”

“Yes, four dishes, please. Say, why did you name our favorite dish ‘Tuna on the rocks’, chef?”

“That?” the chef said, while he was preparing the sandwich at the same time, “it’s a menu dedicated to Lady Caetuna, hence the name ‘Tuna’ on the rocks.”

“I see. Well, I must say I was confused why would you name it ‘Tuna’ when there’s no tuna whatsoever in that dish,” Faia said, chuckling.

“You should try our new special, the ‘Zhuyu’s Inferno’ sometime.”

Zhuyu’s Inferno, the newly invented dish courtesy of the veteran chef, was a combination of a behemoth’s meat and a flan’s jelly, flavored with several spices only found on Rubrum, this dish created a hype among the cadets to try this somewhat “weird but interesting” dish.

“I heard that one. One dish alone costs the same as three dishes of Tuna on the rocks, right?”

The chef chuckled. “Indeed. But I’m telling you, it’s worth it.”

After delivering the four dishes of sandwich, Faia and his friends enjoyed their hard won lunch after that tiring day. Ayane left earlier than the others as she wanted to see her brother before his lecture started. The trainee’s lecture hall was a long walk from Ayane’s location, but her determination to see her little brother made it a short journey. As she entered the lecture hall, she saw him, sitting on the very edge of the class, alone.

She took a seat beside him. “Hey, why the gloomy face, Reon?”

“It’s nothing. It’s my first day, so… yeah,” he said in a nervous tone.

“I’ll give you a simple advice; be good and make some friends. You’ll feel better with friends.”

Reon seemed hesitant, while Ayane had no problem making friends, it was quite the opposite for his little brother. Seeing no response, Ayane looked around her surroundings, she then noticed someone sitting alone, reading a book.

Pointing towards a silver haired girl not far ahead, she said, “Be a good boy and get to know her for me, will you?”

“Okay, I will.”

“There you go! Well, I must be going now. Good luck, Reon!”

Few hours passed like nothing as nighttime arrived. Faia and his friends finally entered the sorcery division as promised, the room was dark with two chairs being put in front of Arecia’s chamber, there was no one there but themselves as the scientists were already at their homes by this time. Their heartbeat quickened as someone came out of her chamber. Of course it wasn’t an assassin, it turned out to be a one of Arecia’s scientists. The scientist warned the cadets to not speak to each other while they were waiting for their turn outside.

Ayane was the first one to enter while the two waited outside. After around five minutes of agonizing silence, Ayane exited with a flustered look. The scientist called Tomu next as Ayane took over his seat. Strangely, he was in the room for the same duration as Ayane. As soon as Tomu exited, the scientist motioned Faia to enter. Faia entered with anxiety as he never went into Arecia’s room before, he then sat in front of Arecia’s desk.

Arecia turned her chair towards Reon. “Cadet Faia Nishimura, you know who I am?”

“Yes. You’re Dr. Arecia Al-Rashia, Rubrum’s Arch-sorceress,” he said as he adjusted his uniform.

Smirking strangely, Arecia glanced on her checklist. “Good, you know me. Have your CO informed you about your new capes?”

“Yes. He did so earlier this day after the lecture.”

“Good. Moving on, do you know why you’re here?”

Faia remained silent, as he did not know what her purpose was.

“I take it as a no, then. Well, you might not know that we are on a disadvantage on this war with Milites as we’re ages behind them in terms of tech.”

Arecia was right, the Dominion didn’t possess the luxury of technology knowledge like the Empire. But even so, they had something that Milites didn’t possess, “magic”.

“Have you heard about the term ‘phantoma’, Cadet Nishimura?”

Faia was confused. “No, what is that?”

Phantoma could be simplified as “one’s life essence”, a part of one’s soul. Not much people knew this, as stated before, one could count it by fingers on how many knew about it. Arecia had her own plan on withstanding the Crystal Jammer, knowing the prototype cape they invented wouldn’t be working as hoped. She theorized, or rather “knew”, that by using phantoma, one can use magic independently without relying on the Crystal’s blessing, it had some setbacks, though. Due to the severity of the truth, she was unable to reveal it entirely to the public, as it would cause a major unrest amidst the citizens.

Still stoned in his seat, Faia said, “I don’t even know that humans could do such thing. So, what does this have to do with me being here?”

Arecia took few steps closer to her window. “I want you to take part in my grand experiment to prove my theory was correct. Not that I wanted to reveal it to public, though.” Seeing Faia seemingly still uninterested, she decided to use her trump card. “If my theory was correct, not only you will be able to withstand the Crystal Jammer, you’ll have _stronger magic_ than anyone could dream for in Rubrum. Well, you cadets could become heroes of Rubrum, ‘the strong cadets that turned the Empire’s Crystal Jammer obsolete’.”

Faia looked interested at last. “H-hero?! That’s my dream as a Class First cadet!”

“So, you’re in or out?”

“Count me in, Doctor! When do we begin?” he said, without hesitation.

“In two days, come to my external facility outside Akademeia. I will be waiting.” She then handed him a note containing an address.

After some more details, especially telling him to keep the experiment a secret from the others beside his friends who were also involved, Faia was finally allowed to leave. Seeing there was some time left to spend, Faia brought his two friends to the rooftop of Akademeia.

“I was so surprised. I might’ve read a lot of books my whole life, but I never see, learn, or even heard such thing existed.”

Ayane leaned her back against the ledge. “Well, Tomu, I think we can agree that there’s more in this world than meets the eye.”

“Either way, we’re in this now. We will be heroes, my friends, remember that.”

Meanwhile, at the sorcery division, Arecia was about to lock her quarters as one of her _operatives_ knocked on the door. She let her inside and told her to have a seat. Arecia felt annoyed a little, but seeing this lady's expression, she knew this had to be something important.

She asked, “Did you tell them it was not known by the Consortium?”

“Yes I do, what seems to be the matter?”

She thought for a while. “Are you certain that they will be able to keep it a secret?”

“Well, I trusted you, their CO, and several others with this secret as well, right? I’m certain they will be able to keep it, especially now that they’re involved in this. Unlike you who rejected my generous offer.”

“Like I said, I had my reasons, Doctor. Very well then, if you do trust them, I’ll trust them as well.”


	5. The Experiment Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faia and his colleagues finally entered Arecia's external facility outside Akademeia. With their newfound powers, will they be able to accept this world's true nature?

**Aqu. IX 837 R.G.**

During a night after a couple of days of the trio agreeing for taking part in the experiment, they secretly walked towards the external facility of the sorcery division, they were lost at first until they were met by a young blonde child along their way.

He said, “Are you lost, cadets?”

Faia shook his head. “No, we’re just doing a routine patrol. Shouldn’t you be at home, kid?”

Inspecting them from hair to their feet, the young man said, “You must be the ones Mother looking for, please follow me.”

“Excuse me, who?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I meant Dr. Arecia. I was told to escort you to the facility.”

He was indeed their escort. Arecia had been waiting too long that she sent this young man to escort them.

On the way, Faia asked, “What’s your name, kid? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“The name’s Ace, pleasure to meet you.”

“You were referring Dr. Arecia as Mother earlier, is she literally your…?”

“Yes. Sort of,” Ace replied coldly.

Upon reaching the chamber’s entrance, Ace excused himself and left the trio, all three of them were thinking the same thing upon seeing the young man. They could feel the coldness inside this young man’s heart, even though he was way younger than them. “ _Who could this boy be_?” they wondered, he referred Arecia as “Mother”, that gave them a slight hint of this boy’s identity. Also, he was so brave that he walked alone at the dead of the night just to find them.

Arecia appeared in front of them. “Took you long enough. Are you ready?”

“Yes. We’re ready, what should we do now, Doctor?”

“Sleep,” she said, pointing towards three cradles apparently prepared just for them.

The three then sat upon the cradle and drank a potion Arecia gave them, she told them that it was a sleeping potion to ensure that they didn’t woke up in the middle of her process, whatever that process would be.

The experiment had finally begun. She chanted, “ _With the powers bestowed within me, I release these three brave warriors from becoming the puppets of Suzaku Crystal. Now, with your brand new powers, exceed my expectations and become the stepping stones for my children in the future._ ” And thus, they were freed from the influence of the Crystal, but one thing still lingered in their minds, their memories were still tangled to the Crystal. For the record, Arecia didn’t remove this _blessing_ , deliberately. Several minutes later, they finally woke up.

They were escorted once again by Ace towards Arecia’s office. Upon sitting in front of her desk, Faia felt weird, it was almost as if his strength was fully sapped by Arecia during that process. Was the process so strong that it made him felt weakened? Either way, Arecia finally arrived after the trio waited long enough.

She gazed her eyes towards them. “How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts, was that _really_ a sleeping potion you gave us?”

Arecia smirked. “That doesn’t matter. For now, how are you feeling with your magic?”

“My magic… I felt that I can no longer use magic.”

“We feel the same as Faia, was the experiment a failure?”

Arecia nodded. “I see, well I can reassure you it’s not a failure. Follow me, I’ll take you to the arena.”

The trio was intrigued by Arecia’s offer, after walking several rounds around the facility, they finally realized that Arecia’s facility was even larger than they thought before, Arecia’s facility even possessed a ready room for her scientists, the smell was good too, tempting the three to stop by, but they knew better to finish their duties first. They eventually reached the arena, where a cadet was already waiting, fully cloaked. Even so, Faia couldn’t help but notice the familiarity of the figure.

The cadet conjured a shining silver sabre, aiming it towards them. “Hit me with all you got, cadets.”

The three tried to summon their weapons, but were unable to do so. Before they even realized it, the cadet was already in front of them. She brandished her sabre with fire magic right in front of their faces. Luckily, they dived just in time to avoid it in time. For minutes, the trio were only able to defend themselves as they were unable to counter the cloaked cadet.

The cloaked cadet took several steps back. “This is not a simulation, unlike your usual training at Akademeia. You could get hurt, so stop playing around and hit me,” the cadet confidently said in a taunting manner.

“We couldn’t even summon our weapons nor cast a spell! How do you expect us to fight?!” Faia shouted.

Arecia clapped her hands from afar. “Good. Now you finally realized the situation.” Arecia then threw them three daggers for them to use. “Your opponent will now step back as you handle the monsters.”

“M-monsters?”

Suddenly, three lesser coeurls entered the arena, they immediately charged towards the trio. A normal cadet would tremble in fear to fight without magic, but these three were something else, with tooth and nails they fought the coeurls furiously. Thanks to their unmatched combat skills, they were able to kill the lesser coeurls easily, only with the ordinary daggers Arecia gave them.

“Good job. I thought you’re done for there. Now do what I taught you, absorb their phantomas.”

The remains of the coeurls started to float as they aimed their palms towards them. In one sweeping motion, they absorbed what’s left of the coeurls. Albeit rather weakly, Faia could feel the presence of fire magic he always relied on within him. Closing his eyes, Faia focused his mind to conjure his trusty “Obsidian Sword”. With the shining black obsidian blade in hand, he imbued the blade with fire. Tomu and Ayane did the same, respectively with thunder and ice magic.

The cloaked cadet returned to the arena. “Now, we can fight. Give it all you got!”

Faia surged forward alongside his comrades, leaving no room for the cloaked cadet to attack. Just within seconds of fighting, the cloaked cadet started to lose her strength and found herself surrounded by the trio. Tomu threw his poleaxe straight towards the cloaked cadet’s face, fortunately, it missed its mark, only managing to graze the cadet’s mask. She fell to the ground with her mask off her face. In desperation, she hurriedly slid towards her mask and managed to put it back on before the trio was able to catch a sight of her face.

“I lost. Good work, cadets. Now then, before we depart, heed my words; with great power comes great responsibility. You possess great powers, but that didn’t change the fact that you three are ordinary humans, like all of us. Remember that.”

After the cloaked cadet left, Arecia redirected the three back towards her office. When the cadets were inside, Arecia allowed them to relax for a bit after their seemingly _dangerous_ simulation. She finally felt it was time to explain them truthfully about what she had done to them, she did just that, leaving no details behind. The trio had a mixed feeling between excited and terrified, they never heard such thing as an _independent magic_ in this world where each person was connected to their respective nation’s Crystal. In the end, she reminded them to keep the experiment as secret, claiming the Consortium wasn’t ready to face the facts about the experiment just yet.

“Any questions?” she asked.

“So, in short, we need phantomas to fuel our magic, right?” Faia asked.

“Yes. As you already know, phantoma is one’s life essence. Without the Crystal’s influence, your body solely relies on phantoma in order to cast a spell. Furthermore, that’s why you were unable to use magic earlier, your phantoma levels were low at that time.

“Don’t worry, if you happen to find yourself in that situation and are unable to harvest phantoma, just come back alive from whatever it is you’re on and come to me.”

“Faia nodded. “I see. Thank you, Doctor. We’ll do our best.”

“One more thing, I still have duties for your other fellow cadets. With the phantomas you gathered, you will bring them to me. I will use those as research for better magic your fellow cadets to use.”

“Yes. Doctor,” the trio said.

As the trio were gone, Arecia muttered to herself, “All three of you are something. You will be the stepping stone of what I need, thank you... for your sacrifice.”


	6. Wings of Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their newfound powers, the trio will finally use it on the battlefield. Furthermore, Class First will once again enter the battlefield, the second time for the seniors and the first time for the juniors. Holding the responsibility of class leader, Faia will try to do anything to ensure everyone returns alive.

**Aqu. X 837 R.G.**

The next day, Faia woke up with a mixed feeling, everything just happened so quickly last night. He decided to not think of it as he needed to go into the classroom to attend an emergency briefing by Kurasame. Finally, Class First was called to the front lines to support the Legionaries in the upcoming 2nd Battle of Meroe region, this time, Representative Miura would not take part whatsoever in the battle, as she would be busy at Concordia alongside the Cadetmaster by that time, and thus, giving Kurasame total command of his cadets.

Thanks to the intel Faia’s team gathered, Kurasame was sure Milites had no chance of victory whatsoever. Upon the conclusion of the briefing, Kurasame sent them to the arena to specifically train them on fire and thunder magic, perfect against infantries and machines alike in their upcoming operation. The Class First cadets trained for hours, they glanced once a while towards Kurasame, wanting to see him pleased by their performance. Class First indeed gave it their all during that training, with this, Kurasame believed that the victory was secured.

After an hour, Kurasame finally put the drill to a close, his expression suggested that he was pleased by the result. They wanted to train some more, but it was getting dark already, therefore, Kurasame dismissed all of them, except for Ayane, Tomu, and Faia. All three of them could feel that Kurasame noticed something inside them.

“Good work today. You three seemed to stand out among the others. Are you not tired after giving it your all?” he asked.

“No, not at all, commander. This is only my 50% if you ask me,” Tomu answered.

“I see. Then show me your 100% on battle tomorrow.”

Ayane looked confident. “Yes commander. We’ll give it our all tomorrow,” she said.

After Kurasame left them, the trio look baffled. Kurasame appeared to be the first one to notice the difference between their magic and the others, Faia reminded them to be careful on the next time. On the contrary, Ayane pointed that if they stay on low profile, they would disappoint Arecia. Tomu seemed neutral and suggested that they should go with the flow.

Suddenly, Kurasame appeared out of nowhere behind them. “Don’t worry, I know everything. You wouldn’t be there without my approval.”

They turned around in shock.

“Don’t look surprised, cadets. I was offered the same thing you have now in the past. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility.”

They’ve heard that before.

“Yes, commander!” the three replied.

“Give it all you got tomorrow. Together, let’s show the world what Class First are capable of on the battlefield.”

Later that night, Faia sneaked out of his dorm, which is a breach of the academy’s rules. He headed to the rooftop, he wanted to enjoy the first day of the three-day full moon of Aquamens. As he reached the top, his heartbeat quickened as he saw a figure on the ledge, he feared that this was a Legionary on patrol. The figure turned around, to his surprise, it was Miura.

“Breaking the school rules, are we?” she said, smirking.

“R-representative? W-what are you doing here?”

“Enjoying the full moon, same as you, I presume. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine, the Legionaries never patrolled on the rooftops.”

Faia was relieved, he then rested his hands on the ledge beside Miura.

“So, to battle tomorrow then?”

“Yes. This will be my second time entering a large operation, at the same place, boringly. On the other hand, it will be my juniors’ first time. Do you think we all can return alive?”

“Well, it’s your responsibility as class leader,” she said. She then took a deep breath as she gazed towards the bright full moon, it was indeed a beautiful sight, the fine weather that night also helped very much. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you all will return home.” She closed.

As Faia took a glance towards her face, he noticed that she had a scar on her face. He then remembered the other day before, Tomu threw his poleaxe right at the spot where Miura had her scar. He decided to ask where did the scar came from, it looked new, obviously. Representative Miura hadn’t been on the field for a long time now, it couldn’t be an accident. Besides, the scar appeared to be inflicted by a weapon.

Miura laughed, she knew that there was no way for her to come up with a silly excuse, after taking a peek towards the rooftop entrance, she conjured her shining silver sabre. “Look familiar?” she asked.

“That weapon! So it was you at the arena, Representative.”

Miura noticed that Faia also had a scar at his left part of his face. “You also had a scar on your face. Am I correct to presume it was coming from me?”

“Yes. You haven’t been on the field for a long time, but your skills… I have to admit you’re still doing great!”

“Thank you. May I inspect your scar?”

Faia’s eyes widen. “Sure, I guess?” he said in a nervous tone.

As her hands touched his face, his heartbeat quickened, he tried everything in his power to keep his cool.

“I see. I’m sure this scar will not affect your battle performance. Yes, you’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Representative. You are good when it comes to motivation.”

She smiled, she then noticed that it was getting late. With heavy heart, she regrettably said her goodbyes to Faia. She wished him good luck, hoping that this wouldn’t be the last time she saw him. When she was gone, Faia breathed a sigh of relief, Miura’s touch seemed to melt his heart, one could wonder why he would feel like that, if he considers her only as a friend, he would just react like a normal person. Jenifa’s suspicion was true all along, Faia _must’ve been_ crushing on the Representative.


	7. The Vermillion Bird and The White Tiger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rubrum and Milites will finally meet each other once again in the field, after 2 days of battle, Milites is currently winning, but it seems Rubrum's commander doesn't feel concerned at all. What does this commander planned all along?

**Aqu. XI 837 R.G.**

The next day, Kurasame and his cadets marched upon the Legion’s camp at the borders of Meroe, the notorious Class First banner, The Blue Phoenix waved through the Legion camp, catching several Legionaries’ attention. Inside the camp, Kurasame left his cadets to meet the Legion commander for a moment. After several minutes inside, the Legion commander exited his tent alongside Kurasame with the cadets all standing by at the front, their faces showed full determination.

The Legion Commander introduced himself as Commander Tsurugi Satoshi, shocking the senior cadets very much, he was none other than their former CO before Kurasame. Now, in the Legion, he commanded the strongest and the most experienced Legion the Dominion possessed, the 1st “Victrix” Legion, nicknamed due to their uncountable number of victories. Even so, the 1st Legion was still “unofficially” the second best to one true strongest Legion of all.

Glancing around the far side of the camp, Faia could see a banner flying high, that was no ordinary banner as it was encompassed by an eagle symbol in it.

Faia whispered to Tomu, “The Eagle… you know what this means.”

“Yeah, this battle must be so bad that they involved the Evocati,” Tomu whispered back.

“Well then, those Imperials are doomed, then.”

Ayane glanced towards her short sword, she always had two knowing tags hanging on the hilt. “Evocati, huh? Finally, I got to see them in action,” she mumbled.

Tsurugi briefed them on the plans, that day marked the 3rd day of the battle, field reports indicated that the Legion was under an extreme pressure from the Imperials, having pushed back for 2 days with literally no progress being made. Despite this, Tsurugi was calm and collected, he revealed that this was his plan all along, to have the Imperials feeling overconfident and to send the cadets and the Evocati on the peak of the battle to catch them off-guard. The cadets were given an order to capture the enemy base and flank the enemies as soon as the Legionaries and the Imperials were caught in the battle.

While they waited for their marching orders, the seniors of Class First gathered around Tsurugi, it haven’t been a year since he left them but it appeared that he already done a lot ever since.

“So, my beloved Class First cadets, how are you cadets doing without my guidance?”

Faia replied, “We’re doing fine. Besides, our new CO is the Ice Reaper himself.”

One of the seniors, Akira, said, “How about you, commander? Must be tough handling thousands of soldiers by yourself.”

“To be honest, yes, it was difficult at first. Thankfully, they put me in command in one of the best Legions we possessed. In short time, they were able to adapt with my command.”

“We were shocked at first seeing you here. We even thought that you’re the commander of the Evocati.”

“No, it’s not the time yet for me, I suppose. Besides, I am ages behind them, I don’t think we could get along that pretty well.”

“I see. Who would’ve wanted to be commanded by someone centuries younger than them, right?”

“Says the one who’s already 23 years old himself. You’re even older than your CO, Yoji.”

“Yeah, yeah. Good to see you too, commander.”

They all laughed by that, well, Tsurugi was not wrong.

Meanwhile, Kurasame was walking around the camp as he met one of the Evocatus, gazing towards his eyes, he could clearly see his will to kill as clear as daylight. Even so, the Evocatus greeted him warmly, saying he’s looking forward on seeing the legendary “Ice Reaper” in action alongside his cadets. After taking his leave, Kurasame asked one of the Evocati Captain on how old were these men and women serving the Evocati. He discovered that they spanned from the age of 30 to 35, ages older than the 21 years old Kurasame himself, he wondered how their magic was still strong even at their thirties. Many said that their willpower and experience in the regular Legions preserved the Crystal’s blessing inside them, miraculously expanding their magic age by around 10 years or so.

After an hour, Commander Tsurugi finally issued the marching order. The Legion marched towards the plains of Meroe for the 10th time in two months. The lookout on the Imperials’ camp noticed the marching Legionaries and signaled the Imperial commander to sally forth. After an hour of marching, The Imperials caught up with them and the two sides battled each other. It immediately turned into a bloody fight as the two fought like wild men, everybody knew that every inch of ground matters that they were willing to die just for it. The cadets and The Evocati held back, letting the regulars taking the brunt of the assault. Kurasame informed his cadets that they would be invading the enemy main camp on his signal while he waited for the perfect opportunity to do so. For a half an hour, the cadets were forced to sit down, bored, as they’ve been waiting Kurasame’s signal for too long.

Few more minutes passed and at last, Kurasame sprinted back from the front lines, the moment the cadets were waiting for finally arrived as he sounded the signal. Led by Kurasame, the cadets circled around the battlefield through a wooded area, hiding them from the Imperials’ sight. When they finally reached the end of the wooded area, they found themselves in the entrance of the enemy main camp. Kurasame ordered a head-on charge towards the camp, and within minutes, Akademeia cadets flooded the camp. The Imperials inside the camp were caught off guard, they tried to signal the main force, but Kurasame thought ahead and put several cadets to prevent the Imperials from signaling them. The seniors were disappointed on the Imperials’ resistance that one of them, Taka, taunted an Imperial fighting him, hell, there’s even several senior girl cadets gossiping in the middle of the battle. The juniors, however, as their 1st large operation, fought as if they were hounds on the loose.

Further inside, Kurasame spotted the central command. After weighing the options, he called 3 cadets nearby to assault it personally. As they entered the central command, they were immediately met with a heavy resistance. Tomu conjured a wall to block the incoming projectiles as Kurasame surged forward, conjuring his notorious Ice Blade. He ordered Tomu to cast protection spell for all of them, while he ordered Faia and Ayane to cover his back.

Faia and Ayane surged forward to cover Kurasame. The Imperials were terrified by the presence of the Ice Reaper, alive and well right in front of them. Due to his momentum, Kurasame dangerously let his guard down and found himself surrounded by the Imperials. Faia and Ayane sprinted to the rescue, cutting down all of the Imperials surrounding Kurasame, he finally witnessed the two first hand and thought “ _Amazing! Those powers. So this is what Arecia has done to them._ ” Viewing his men cut down one-by-one, the Militesi Commander dropped his weapon and surrendered. Ultimately, seeing their commander captured, the rest of the Imperials surrendered and the Imperials’ main camp was successfully captured by the elite Class First.

Kurasame gathered around his cadets. “Alright, good work. I’ll escort this Imperial scum outside, you three clean up here and gather any intel you can find at their headquarters.”

“Yes, commander!” they shouted.

As Kurasame left, Faia turned his attention towards the two. “That’s our cue, let’s replenish our strengths now.”

“That was a rather tiring endeavor, if you ask me.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Ayane.”

Simultaneously, the three absorbed the life essence of their fallen foes inside the HQ. In an instant, they felt refreshed, raring to go once again to the field.

Faia took a deep breath. “That felt better. Let’s grab what we can and head back into the fray.”

Outside the HQ, Ayane spotted a large Magitek Armor, it looked as if it was ready to be deployed. Upon closer inspection, Tomu had a theory on what the machine was for. Grabbing one of the documents they took from the HQ, there were actually some reinforcements approaching them by now, but due to the fact that Rubrum was winning, those reinforcements were assumed to be cancelled.

“Guys, take a look. This was supposed to be piloted by someone named ‘Captain Qun’mi Tru’e’.”

“I know who that is. She’s the head scientist of Militesi weapons research and development,” Faia said.

“I think I know what this thing is. This thing must be the fabled Crystal Jammer.”

“Goodness. Well, if this thing was in fact a Crystal Jammer, I’m glad that this thing never see action in the battle.”

Tomu said, “Faia, you’re the lead. What should we do about this thing?”

“Let’s get rid of this thing so they couldn’t retrieve it whatsoever,” he said, without hesitation. Acknowledging Faia’s orders, they demolished the Magitek Armor, reducing it to a stack of metal junk with no possibility to recover it whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Kurasame sent Jenifa and one of his cadets, Shinji, to drag the enemy commander back to their camp while the rest charged to the rear of the main army in the plains. The rearguard saw the cadets charging towards them and started to panic, this caused a chain reaction within the main army as they lose the will to fight. They tried to surrender, but the Legion, especially the Evocati ignored it outright and continued their killing frenzy, motivated with vengeance for their fallen comrades after their 3-day battle. Within minutes, the battlefield turned silent as the Legion spared no literally no one on that onslaught. Meanwhile at the camp, as the two Class First cadets carried the surrendering commander, they were halted by two hooded Legionaries.

“We’ll take it from here. Thank you, cadet.” Behind the Legionary hood, the two cadets saw a familiar sight of an Akademeia cadet uniform.

As the two Legionaries brought the commander into the tent, the cadets stared at each other.

“Were those… _two maroon_ capes that I just saw?” Jenifa asked.

Shinji shrugged. “Dunno, don’t care, let’s just get back to the battlefield.”

Faia appeared behind them. “You guys don’t need to. It’s over already.”

Jenifa was shocked. “That was quick! Did you guys get the chance to see the Evocati in action?” she asked.

“The Evocatus… they are old, but they’re the ruthless ones,” Ayane said, shaking her head, she finally witnessed the Evocati in action, she had to admit it was relieving and terrifying at the same time to possess such powerful comrades.

At the end of the day, the battle was won by the Dominion, but the war was still far from over. That day, they only lost around 100 Legionaries and no casualties from the cadets, while Milites suffered a great loss with all of their remaining 1000 men slaughtered by the Legion. Overall, Rubrum lost around 1000 men, while Milites lost 9000 men.

Back at the camp, Tsurugi congratulated Kurasame on their successful capture of the enemy main camp, he also thanked him for the capture of the enemy commander as he spilled a lot of intel for the Dominion.

Kurasame frowned. “What about the prisoners?”

“Well, I promised to the Evocati Captain that they would be in charge of the prisoners.”

“I see, I’m sure that’s not going to end well for the prisoners. By the way, thank you for this great chance to see the Evocati in action, commander. I am thoroughly amazed.”

“Your welcome. I will be looking forward to more joint operations then, Kurasame. Before you return to Akademeia, please do stop by at Mi-Go, the Mayor’s expecting you,” Tsurugi said.

Kurasame and his cadets mounted their chocobos and headed straight to Mi-Go, eventually reaching it by nightfall. As they dismounted, the town representative directed them to an inn prepared specially for them. After gathering his cadets, Kurasame informed them to get some rest and that they would return to Akademeia by noon the next day.


	8. A Touching Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before his return, Kurasame is told by Tsurugi to stop by Mi-Go to see the Mayor. This Mayor... knew Kurasame, that's why she wanted to see him. Kurasame is about to experience a touching reunion.

**Aqu. XI 837 R.G.**

While Kurasame was laying on his bed, someone knocked on his door. He opened the door and it turned out to be Faia, carrying a letter for him said to be from the Mayor. Before he left, Kurasame asked him to inform his classmates to get some meal while they can, giving him 1800 gils to spread proportionately to everyone. Since they were in Mi-Go, Faia immediately knew what he would get with his share.

After Faia left, Kurasame inspected the letter, it had a pleasant scent as the Mayor sprayed a perfume over it. Suddenly, Kurasame felt the familiarity of the perfume scent. With haste, he opened the letter and read it.

It quoted, “ _Hello Kurasame, I heard from the officials that you will be attending a mission at Meroe. If this letter reaches you, then you’re surely still alive. I informed the Legion Commander stationed there to tell you to stop by Mi-Go when you’re done. Now that you’re here, please come to my office, I will be waiting._ ”

He couldn’t help but notice the familiarity of the handwriting, without hesitation, he decided to go. The Mayor’s office itself was located on the far side of the town. He was greeted by the Mayor’s butler and immediately directed to the guest room while the butler informs the Mayor of Kurasame’s arrival. While he waited, he inspected the room, on the far side of the room, he could see something that even himself couldn’t believe, it was a long-lived Concordian white flower he gave to certain someone before parting ways with her.

“No. It can’t be her. I cannot believe it,” he mumbled.

Meanwhile, at the cadets’ room, Tomu was visiting Faia. They were enjoying their meal, thanks to the gils Kurasame gave them.

“I’ve always been meaning to try Mi-Go’s great salad. I have to admit that waiting was worth it,” Tomu said.

“Yeah. But it was expensive that we blew all of our gils.”

Tomu laughed, it was indeed expensive as one dish alone costed 160 gil. The Great Salad of Mi-Go, even though it was only a salad, it was said that one dish was enough for even a grown man to be stuffed until the rest of the day.

Tomu changed the subject. “About what we talked on the battlefield during our scouting mission?”

Faia sighed. “Really? That was long ago and you still remember about that.”

Tomu then scanned around the window, trying to make sure no one heard them about their seemingly weird conversation.

“So, you have a crush on the Representative, didn’t you?”

Faia was thoroughly shocked. “Eh?! What makes you think that?”

Tomu smirked. “Come on, Faia. Me, Ayane, and Jenifa knew about this. Well, me and Ayane didn’t give much thought about it at first, but thanks to Jenifa, we—”

“Jenifa. What is she up to?” Faia shook his head.

“Well, answer the question, dude.”

“Fine. ‘ _I have a crush towards the Representative_ ’. You happy now?”

Suddenly, Ayane and Jenifa entered the room, they heard it all along. They clapped their hands in excitement and laughed at his confession. Actually, Faia had a great taste, no one had the guts to crush on the Representative, despite everyone’s view on her as “cute”. Either way, they were all happy with him, they decided to help him to get close to her somehow. But deep inside, one of them wasn’t very happy with it.

Back at the Mayor’s office, after few minutes of silence, the Mayor eventually entered the guest room. Kurasame guessed right, it was none other than Aoi Tomoshibi, his former flame. It might be a long time ago already, but Kurasame couldn’t control his heartbeat, signifying his nervousness towards her.

She gave a smile Kurasame vividly remembered. “Hello, Kurasame. Long time no see.”

“Aoi. It’s good to see you again,” he said, also giving her a smile.

“Would you like some tea?”

“Yes, please. Green tea and no sugar, as usual,” he said, even Aoi could notice he was smiling behind that mask.

“Of course. Glad to see you didn’t change at all, Kurasame.”

Aoi poured him the tea he desired, the green tea of Mi-Go. The tea that was naturally sweet that even the citizens of Concordia, Lorican Alliance, and even Milites themselves admitted it. After the two finished their tea, Aoi invited Kurasame to the rooftop of the Mayor’s office. Knowing it should be full moon outside, Kurasame accepted it, he had been meaning to talk to her after all these years not seeing her, even for a glance.

The sight that night was beautiful indeed, as the full moon appeared on its peak at that time. They stared at the dark sky while they catch up on what they did these few years past, including Kurasame’s path on becoming a commander. As for Aoi, she took the path of a politician after getting a complete support from his father, she revealed that her true purpose to become Mayor was to take a stepping stone to become a member of the Consortium, succeeding his father should he decide to retire.

Aoi said, “To be honest, I never liked politics that much.”

“Then why did you aim to become a member of the Consortium?” he asked, frowning.

“About that, I guess you could say I had a change of heart,” she said, somewhat hesitantly.

“Really? Is that so? Well, I hope the Crystal clears the path for you, Aoi.”

“Thank you, Kurasame. I had a doubt about it until now. But suddenly, your presence somehow reassured me.”

“Hey, that’s what _friends_ are for, right?”

Aoi looked upset. “Y-yeah, friends… that’s it.”

“What’s the matter?”

“N-nothing, I think it’s getting colder in here. We better get back inside.”

Kurasame agreed and they both headed back inside. Kurasame wanted to stay a little longer, but he already felt tired. He decided to head back to the inn after saying his goodbyes to Aoi, he hoped that he could see her again the next time.

As Kurasame disappeared from the horizon, Aoi mumbled to herself, “ _Kurasame… please be safe. When I make it to the Consortium, we’ll have more time to see each other again… then again maybe we could be… together, again._ ” Her mumbling revealed that she still loved him, but for now, she couldn’t expect him to still love her back. Despite this, Aoi still determined to get herself close again with him, one way or another.


	9. The School Life Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cadets returned to Akademeia safely, and thus, their school life continues. But, they will not be resting for a long time, as they will be assigned to a new role later on.

**Aqu. XII 837 R.G.**

The next afternoon, Kurasame and his cadets set upon their journey home. As expected, the journey was rather uneventful. Back at Akademeia, he congratulated them for their safe return and as a reward, he gave them a 7-day vacation, in which they happily accepted. Despite being given a week off, they were still advised to train whenever they can, pointing it was necessary for them to do so, as Commander Tsurugi could call upon them again at any moment.

After being dismissed, Faia hurriedly headed towards the terrace. As expected, Miura was there. She was glad that everyone at Class First managed to return home safely.

“What brings you here? You were just returning earlier and the first thing you do is looking for me,” she asked, giving him a serious look.

“I wanted to talk to you about something, about ‘that’, actually.”

“I see. This place is a little crowded, if you want to talk about it, let’s go to my dorm.”

Faia agreed and they walked towards her dorm. Faia then asked her how did she become involved at first on their experiment. Actually, Miura was the second person Arecia wanted to experiment on after Kurasame, in which she refused, again, like Kurasame. Even so, Miura agreed on the fact that Rubrum needed this experiment if they wanted to stand a chance in the war, thus, she offered her service to Arecia to find suitable cadets for her to experiment on.

She apologized to Faia that he was being used as experiment. Surprisingly, Faia said he didn’t mind at all, in fact, he was glad to be somewhat “important” for Rubrum. Feeling that he found the answer he was looking for, Faia took his leave, saying that he promised to train with his juniors at this time.

Thanks to their week off, half of Class First cadets were free to roam around Akademeia while they weren’t training. Faia chose to spend most of his time training with his fighter colleagues even when not on training schedule, Tomu spent most of his days off at the Crystarium, he said to his friends about his attempt to study further on magic varieties. Ayane appeared to be the most grateful of them all, finally having more chance to see the development of his brother and giving him a lot of crucial encouragements for him to carry on.

One day, Ayane asked his brother how much he got used to the environment and how much friend he made these few weeks back.

“So, I made friends with pretty much everyone. To be honest, it wasn’t that hard.”

“There you go, little one. Hey, about that silver haired girl, what’s her name?”

“Oh? Her name is Miyu Kagirohi.”

“I see, I see. What about the others? Tell me their names.”

Reon put his fingers below his chin. “Let’s see, the girl that’s currently reading alone there is Tohno Mahoroha. Those who are playing at the front are Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya.”

“Wow, you memorized their full names! I’m glad that you got along with everyone.”

Unfortunately, their conversation was cut short as the instructor arrived early at that time. On her way out, she crossed path with Miura, who was also on her way to the trainee’s class.

After a warm greeting, Miura said, “Now that you’re here, I just wanted to inform you to be prepared. Something big will come as soon as your vacation ends.”

“O-okay, do you mind telling me what is it, Representative? I don’t like vague statements, to be honest.”

“Is that so? Well then, soon, Class First will be given a new assignment, a new role to be exact. It will be exciting, that I can assure you.”

“Okay, thanks for the heads up, Representative.”

“Anyway, your brother… his grades are gradually improving. I gave some of the trainees a personal tutor, that seemed to help them.”

Ayane’s face showered with joy. “Really?! Wow, thank you, representative! I met him just now and I could see how much he changed. I believe this was all thanks to your hard efforts.”

“No worries. Like I said before, we cadets should look after each other.”

Days passed and Class First’s vacation was finally over by the twentieth day of Aquamens. That day, Faia and his friends entered the classroom earlier than everyone. Lately, there had been rumors regarding the other classes’ role, rumors spread about Class First not being the only class that the Dominion used in their war efforts.

At Faia’s table, Jenifa leaned her back. Apparently, the morning sleepiness still caught her. In fact, the longing feeling for vacation seemed still lingering inside them.

“I just remembered about something. Did you guys happen to know about Class Ninth?” Jenifa asked.

“Oh? Those are the guys that aren’t bright enough to be at Akademeia, right?”

“Yup. Here’s the thing, guys.” Jenifa cleared her throat and sat closer towards Faia. “Did you remember about our friend Mizuki?”

Tomu replied, “Yeah, she’s my classmate back at Class Eleventh”

“Yes. Well, guess what? She was recently transferred to Class Ninth.”

Ayane frowned. “What’s your point, Jenifa?”

“I think I get it,” Tomu said, he looked as if he was sure. “Must be weird that a Class Eleventh cadet transferred to Class Ninth, right?”

“Exactly, that’s what I’m talking about.”

Suddenly, Kurasame entered the classroom, ending their conversation. He brought a guest with him, it was Miura. She stood up in front of the class while Kurasame took his commander seat behind her. The cadets’ felt somewhat uneasy, they were never visited by the Representative before. After the class went quiet, Miura informed the class that they were ordered to head towards the Section Four facility outside Akademeia to receive a briefing about their new assignment.

The cadets then packed their things and left the classroom. They then marched towards the section four facility. It was still morning that the sun disturbed their march, the morning sun of Aquamens was always known as the most blinding of all month, not to mention it was unusually too hot at that time of the day.

Along the way, Ayane looked confused, why would they go into a facility that was said to hold the “not-so-bright cadets”? Faia said that they were probably sent there to just to have a look around the facility, while Jenifa and Tomu both joked that they were probably sent to straighten those “not-so-bright cadets”. From afar, Miura heard their conversation, she only smiled, she just couldn’t wait to see them all shocked with what they would see later on.

As they entered the facility, they were greeted by the intelligence representative, Mizuki Akechi, a Class Ninth cadet. She spoke in a highly manner, as if she wasn’t a Class Ninth cadet they were rumored to be. That was only the tip of the iceberg as Class First cadet would soon inevitably discover more interesting things.

“Speak of the devil. Hello there, former classmate,” Tomu said.

“Tomu… and guys. Long time no see,” she said calmly. “We shall not wait here any longer, follow me.” Mizuki then directed them to section four lecture hall and told everyone to take their seats and wait until representative Miura was ready to inform their new roles. In all honesty, Ayane gave her thoughts that the facility looked amazing. Weird for a place that was said to hold Class Ninth cadets.

Moments later, Miura finally entered the room. Once again, she stood in front of the Class First cadets. In a shocking revelation, they finally discovered about the truth about Class Ninth’s role as intelligence officers, it was said that they were immediately tasked with these kind of missions ever since their foundation two years prior to this day. While the cadets were surprised, it wasn’t the same as Kurasame, he already knew about it on his cadet days. Additionally, amongst the top secret assassins and spies, Class Ninth recently formed an elite cadet task force of chocobo riders, usually sent as messengers on the front lines, delivering crucial information for the Legions.

Miura then asked the cadets if they had a question they wanted to ask.

Ayane raised her hand. “So, why are we here, Representative?”

“Yes. Pardon me, it seems that I got carried away informing you about Class Ninth. Now, listen carefully… as we all know, you Class First cadets are the best of the best when it comes to combat.

“The tables have turned. The Empire, as we know it, rapidly grows stronger day by day. They are currently developing a wide range of new weaponries, more terrifying than what we already witnessed today, our main threat so far is their newly developed Crystal Jammer. Currently, an invasion is out of question, as it requires massive manpower to do so.

“The only way we could stand a chance in this war is by making sure those weapons they are developing… never to see an action on the battlefield.”

Miura then motioned towards Mizuki, she then backed down from the stage as Mizuki stepped forward. “

I will explain further,” she said, “that’s why we will be assigning Class First to take part on our operations. We Class Ninth cadets’ combat capability are far inferior compared to yours. With our missions getting dangerous day-by-day, we’ll need all the help we can get. Without further delay, I welcome you Class First cadets to one of our proud project, the ‘Code Crimson’.”

With Mizuki’s statement, Class First officially became a part of Rubrum’s darkest secret. Their standard black ops were bad enough it deserved to be called dirty jobs, but as for “Code Crimson”, it was on another level of dirtiness that several Class Ninth cadets dubbed it as “Pitch Black Orders”. Feeling that everything was said, Mizuki dismissed the cadets, she allowed them to take a look around the facility as they will be here to receive their orders later on.

Later that day, Ayane headed towards the rooftop. Miura was there with Kurasame, seemingly discussing about how Class First would cope with their new role.

Upon seeing Ayane coming, she said, “Hello, Ayane. Didn’t see that coming, didn’t you? I can understand that. These times, we’ll need to do whatever it takes to win the war.”

“I understand, Representative. We discussed about it upon our dismissal, and I must say that everyone’s glad to be part of this,” she then glanced towards Kurasame. “By the way, what were you two talking about?”

Kurasame replied, “We’re just catching up on old times. You might already know that Miura was one of my juniors at Class First during my time as a cadet.”

“Yes. I remember the time when Mr. Kurasame saved the lives of Class Sixth cadets when things go south on their routine field training. They were ambushed by the rogue Militesi soldier, Sergeant Major Morse Axelsen.”

“Sergeant Morse? Wait… me and my team met him on our first field assignment a month ago! So he was hostile to us?”

“He was. And I still believe he is until you reported to me about his offer to help us should we got into trouble in their soil,” Kurasame then glanced towards the blue sky and sighed. “Even so, we must stay sharp at all times. He cannot be trusted by any means.”

Meanwhile, Faia was at the facility’s chocobo ranch with Tomu and Jenifa.

“Look at this. They even had a chocobo ranch of their own,” Jenifa said, feeling amazed.

Someone appeared behind them. “Yes we have. But mind you, these guys aren’t ordinary chocobos.”

Faia turned around. “And you are?”

“Pardon me. The name’s Izana, Izana Kunagiri, leader of the elite Class Ninth chocobo task force.”

“Nice to meet you, Izana. I’m Faia Nishimura, this nerdy guy is Tomu Takeda, and this long haired girl is Jenifa Nakahara.”

Jenifa seemed puzzled. “You look familiar, Izana. Tell me, did you take part in battle of Meroe a month ago?”

“Indeed. I know you, cadet Nakahara. You were escorting someone with one of your classmates back there, right?”

“Yes I was.”

“You look like a kid, how old are you, Izana?” Tomu asked.

“16.”

Faia was shocked. “I’m sorry, what?! 16?! And you’re already a leader of an elite task force? Class Ninth surely don’t mess around, don’t they?”

“I assure you, we aren’t messing around.”

Faia felt it was time for them to leave. As they reached the front door, Izana halted them, asking that if they knew a cadet with Kurayami as last name. They asked him why would he wanted to know, in which he replied that he had a trainee brother named Machina that was friends with someone named Reon Kurayami.

“Yeah, that would be Ayane. It is true that Reon is his brother,” Jenifa said.

“In that case, would you tell her that I want to meet her sometime? Well you know, I want to talk as one older sibling to another.”

“Sure, we’ll let her know on our way back to Akademeia.”

“Thanks, be seeing you again, Class First,” Izana said, waving his hand.


	10. Code Crimson I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Class First officially entered Code Crimson as a desperate measure to ensure Rubrum's chance of victory in the war. Radically different than the usual cold, harsh, and unpredictable battlefield, they will now step into the silent, dark, and deadly battlefield.

**Pet. X 837 R.G.**

Class First was finally summoned by Mizuki. She formed a task force consisted of 2 groups with the first consisting of Faia, Ayane, and Tomu, assigned as vanguards. The second group consisted of Jenifa and Izana, handling the transportation and acting as rearguard. At the dead of the night, Representative Miura briefed them on their mission to escort a Dominion official to the borders of Meroe on a “diplomatic errand”. The mission would be carried out at 0200 hours and they were expected to return just before the other cadets attend Akademeia at 0600 hours to prevent suspicion.

Exactly at 0200 hours, Faia and his team of 5 set out on a convoy. Upon an hour of marching, it seemed mundane as there were nothing in their way other than some stray monsters. As they were nearing the borders, the official requested for a short break. Miura ordered Faia, Izana, and Tomu over the COMM to scout ahead the borders to check for intruders from Milites. When the three were gone with their chocobos, the official seemed worried as he spoke to the other two.

“All right, we’re nearing the borders now. After we link up with Militesi representatives and handed them the Dominion’s secret documents, we are to never return to Akademeia, _as planned_.”

Ayane decided to play it cool, as she replied, “Yes sir, as planned.”

“You kids did great. I’ll see to it that Marshall Cid grants you a good position in the military.”

Jenifa whispered to Ayane, “What’s going on?”

“Just play along,” she whispered back.

From afar, Miura heard it all from a tapping device she planted, she finally got the _evidence_ she needed. In a shocking call, she issued Ayane an order to assassinate the official before he succeeded his plan. Not far out, a Militesi patrol was spotted by the other party, this seemed to be the representatives the official was talking about, Mizuki immediately issued an order of total extermination of the enemy patrol for the second party.

“So this is the Code Crimson. I thought that we got the boring part of the job, marching an official for nothing” Faia said, shaking his head.

“This is just the tip of an iceberg,” Izana calmly said.

“Well, it must be called Code Crimson for a reason. Let’s just make quick work of them.”

After several minutes, the Militesi convoy appeared in the horizon as Faia and his colleagues went into hiding. When they were within range, Faia commenced the ambush by enveloping the convoy in a firewall while Izana and Tomu surged forward with their chocobos, attacking the surprised convoy relentlessly with their weapons and magic. As the flame cleared, all it’s left was the bodies of the Militesi soldiers laying on the ground.

Feeling it all went in a flash, Faia asked Izana how long it took them, it only took them 1 minute to wipe out the entire convoy. They were unsure whether they should be proud or terrified with what they did. After reporting to Mizuki that they were done, they were ordered to return to the convoy at once.

Faia stopped in his tracks. “You guys head back first, I’ll clean up here and stand guard for a minute, who knows if there’s more of them.”

“Alright then. Take care, Faia,” Tomu replied, he knew what Faia actually wanted to do.

“If there’s anything, hail us again at once.”

“I will, Izana. Now go on ahead.”

As the two disappeared into the horizon, Faia glanced around his surroundings one last time, ensuring nobody was there. Repeating the same process, like what he did on the 2nd Battle of Meroe, Faia refreshed himself by absorbing the phantomas of his fallen enemies. Within seconds, their bodies disappeared into thin air with their life force completely absorbed. He then hastily regrouped with Izana and Tomu, just at the right time as the two reached the other group.

“What happened?!” Faia asked.

Ayane sighed. “We are to return to Akademeia, you’ll know it all back there.”

Tomu glanced around. “Wait… what are we here for again?”

“Save your questions for later.”

They returned quietly to Akademeia as planned around 0500 hours. Inside the Central Command, Miura was waiting for them alongside Mizuki and their fellow Class First cadets, Shinji and Ran that were writing the reports of the mission. On Miura’s debrief, she revealed that their true mission was to “prevent” the official from handing the secret document for the Militesi representatives.

Few days earlier, the other intelligence operatives successfully captured several officials believed to be tied to the traitor. It turned out that the Intelligence Division had an agent working for the traitor, on the day of the document exchange, the agent informed the traitor that he would be escorted by several cadets, allowing Faia and his team to get close to him. But this left Faia and his team confused on why Miura would do such thing without telling them what their actual mission was, leading to them questioning what their true purpose were. Izana felt it was all normal, so he remained silent.

Miura rested her hands on the table. “We wanted to test your wits,” she said, glancing towards the 5 operatives, her eyes hinted her tiredness, but she was still able to carry on. “We left it to you to fully comprehend the situation by yourselves, and I must say I am pleased that you were able to do so, especially those who were with the traitor.”

“And what of the officials who betrayed us?”

“Them?” Miura smirked. “Well, Mizuki told me I’ve interrogated 4 of them, but I don’t recall ever doing so.”

Izana said, “They’re dead, that’s what it is.”

Miura stood up, grabbing the attention of everyone. “Well then, now you know what we truly do in here, Class First. I’ll be looking forward for more of your success.”

And thus, they finally realized that there were other enemies aside from the ones on the other side of that snowy plains to the west. In truth, every nation had a fair share of their troubles with spies amidst them, so it was actually a normal thing in Orience.


	11. Code Crimson II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Class First went deeper into Code Crimson, the more attention the Consortium gave towards them. Believing in their potentials, the Consortium decided to send them deeper into more dangerous missions.

**Pet. XXIX 837 R.G.**

For weeks, Class First regularly went into several missions alongside the senior saboteurs of Class Ninth deep within Militesi territory. They succeeded in slowing down the creation of the new magitek armor codename “Helldiver”, one of the projects Milites keen on finishing. On one occasion, a team led by one of the senior Class First cadet, Akira, got into trouble as they were compromised by the Imperials. The mission miraculously was still a success after his team got a sudden help from a rogue soldier named Morse. He actually kept his promise to help the cadets in trouble. With this, Kurasame finally started to turn his attention towards Morse. Planning to take part in their next mission, his primary motivation was to meet Morse himself.

On the other hand, rumors started to spread within Akademeia cadets regarding a group of _people_ from the Dominion that weakened the capability of the Empire during the war, it was only a matter of time until they found out those _peoples_ turned out to be among themselves. Also, the Consortium’s Cadetmaster, Miotsuku Ofumaki was currently updating the Class First’s involvement in Code Crimson towards the members of the Consortium.

“They are doing well. With this momentum, we should advance into more dangerous missions for them.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” the Commandant, Suzuhisa Higato, said, “I know that they’re the best of the best. Even so, they are built for the battlefield, not for the shadows.”

Prime Deputy Fuyou Tomoshibi joined the discussion. “I don’t see that as a problem, if you don’t mind me saying.”

“Just deploy them. They are more than capable to do it. Besides, they will be doing my sorcery division a favor.”

“Well, well, Dr. Arecia. It’s unusual for you to talk in these kind of discussions.”

Suzuhisa sinisterly smirked. “Of course she’s interested in these. I heard that you’re using all of Class First as your lab rats.”

“But of course. It’s necessary, would you prefer that we’re hundreds of years behind Milites? For generations, Class First have always been helping us in magic development by providing their battle data for us to develop.

“With us evolving, we are now able to gather even more accurate data on the battlefield thanks to our newly invented prototype cape Class First used recently in their battles, unlike before where we relied on subjective reports they made post-battle.”

“So I’ve heard,” Miotsuku said, “I presume that with them getting on more dangerous missions, you could gather even more data for our magic development?”

“Correct. Just sign them already.”

Arecia was part right. Class First indeed helped Rubrum for generations in their development. Even though the other classes, especially Class Third and Eleventh, did take part in both weaponries and magic development, it would eventually be Class First’s duty to field test whatever it was they invented. Although, involving them in deeper secret missions would be their first time doing so in Rubrum’s history. In a sense, secret missions were supposed to be safer than being in a large operation, but it was entirely wrong. Risks of death in a large operation was indeed higher than in a secret mission, but in a secret mission, there were more things to be worried about more than death itself.

As everyone should’ve aware, secret missions were called “secret” not without a reason. All of the missions were indeed sanctioned by the Consortium, but one thing that always lingered in the operatives’ mind was that should they fail one of their missions, the Consortium and Rubrum wouldn’t be able to cover their acts, and thus, disavowing their acts. As a result, their action would be deemed as an “act of treason” or “war crime”, turning the operatives into “enemies of the state”. That was what has been bothering the Consortium so far, should Class First fail one of their missions, especially in missions involving in taking action against one of their own, they would have no choice but to brand them as traitors, not good considering Class First’s reputation.

For hours, they discussed this single matter, nearly to no avail. It nearly turned into a pointless debate, until the Cadetmaster silenced the room and called a vote instead on whether they should involve Class First in more dangerous Code Crimson missions or not. Tallying the vote, out of the 8 members, 5 agreed while the 2 disagreed and 1 abstained. With this, Class First was officially sanctioned to take part on deeper Code Crimson missions.

“Lovely. What’s their debut, then?” Arecia asked.

“We’ll need the leader of Code Crimson for this matter,” –The Cadetmaster motioned at one of the liaisons— “summon Ms. Akechi right away.”

Meanwhile at the arena, Class First just finished their joint training session with Class Second. Ayane stayed behind to inspect her weapon, ensuring its readiness for later use. Miura also stayed behind, as usual. Miura asked her to lend her the blade, upon a close inspection, Ayane’s weapon was a unique one. It looked like a sword, but the size was too small to be called one. Ayane then revealed it was a custom made, her past trainee instructors advised her on sticking towards daggers due to her posture, but Ayane just knew that it wasn’t her style, that’s why she asked one of her friends from Class Eleventh to create a weapon that fitted her style. She called the blade “The Gladius”.

Miura noticed there were two knowing tags hanging in her blade. “These knowing tags… they shared the same last name as you. May I know who they were?”

“They were…” –Ayane took a deep breath— “my parents. They died in the war.”

“I’m sorry. Did they serve in the Legion, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Yes, they were. The Evocati to be exact. They died during the great incident of Ignismens 830. I was just recently enrolled on Akademeia as trainee back then and Reon was just still a child.”

“Ignismens 830? That’s… during the long-term ceasefire! That day, Milites breached our ceasefire pact and ambushed the Consortium on a feast.”

“Correct. A civil officer told me everything, he told me that the feast should be my parents’ company last mission before being fully discharged from the military.”

Miura hesitantly said, “And then you worked your way towards Class First that are ‘ _occasionally sent to the field_ ’ to exact revenge on the Empire?”

“No,” Ayane said, shaking her head. “What’s the point doing that for two peoples that you didn’t even remember anymore? I joined because I wanted to become Agito, like everyone else, it’s simple as that.

It was true that Ayane’s parents were actually only a foot away from peaceful lives as they were serving their last year as Evocati. One indeed have to volunteer for the spot in Evocati, but still, it didn’t change the fact that they had two young children to take care back then.

“I understand your feeling. Let’s hope they found their peace in the afterlife.”

Ayane smirked. “Let’s hope so. Thank you, Representative.”

The next day, Class First received another COMM call from Miura for their next mission. Apparently, Miura was just recently given full control of “Code Crimson” as Mizuki was transferred back to Class Eleventh all of the sudden. The mission would take days outside Akademeia, therefore, Miura stated that they would be disguised as scholar representatives to prevent any suspicion from the other cadets. Their next mission was to track and assassinate a Militesi scientist said to be holding several key intel to their advanced experiment on a Magitek Armor codenamed “Gabriel”, he was last seen gathering intel at the Lorica region, revealed to be actually masquerading as a travelling merchant alongside his bodyguards. There was also an intel about a rogue Militesi personnel said to be roaming around the area, they were advised to stand guard should he make another appearance as he was still deemed “unpredictable”.

Due to Kurasame’s request earlier, he was being put in charge of the operation and appointed Faia to go and choose two more cadets to accompany him. Faia appointed Jenifa and Tomu to accompany him while Ayane, Taka, and Kurasame filled the second team, they would camp a little further from Faia’s team position in search of the scientist’s position. In addition, Miura also appointed Izana as secondary should things didn’t go according to plan. He would be posted at Mi-Go on standby with an airship.

After Miura left, the three devised their plan. Faia had a feeling that this mission would be the hardest so far. That’s why he put Ayane in the second team should things go south, he couldn’t afford to send all of the best straight into the fray. Even so, he also knew that Jenifa wasn’t an ordinary cadet, despite her not receiving Arecia’s augmentation, Jenifa knew what had to be done when it comes to stealth. She suggested that they should do some scouting days before they “went in guns blazing”. Tomu offered his insights, he read the reports about the official only having 10 soldiers watching his back. It might not be an army, but those 10 were said to be coming from the veterans of the 830 R.G. incident. Regardless of some minor setbacks, the trio finally came up with the plan and decided to head out early the next day.


	12. Ayane Kurayami

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayane had a past she was reluctant on sharing with her friends. Coming from a happy family, all that changed in a blink of an eye just as she was sleeping.

**Ign. XI 830 R.G.**

After several hours wrestling with a strangely very hard homework, Ayane was finally able to sleep peacefully this night. Just as she nearly went to bed, her parents visited her, wearing the uniforms of the proud Evocati Legion.

“Hello, dear. How’s the homework?”

“The homework? It’s done, mother,” Ayane said confidently.

“Good girl,” her father said, “so, Ayane, we’ll be going soon to Meroe, do you want something?”

“Meroe? In that case… All I want is just for you two to return home as fast as you can.”

Her father gave her a soft pat on her medium long black hair. “Don’t worry. We won’t be long, Ayane. We’ll be back at Akademeia before you know it.”

They then hugged her tightly, each of them shedding a small tear. Just as they started to leave, Ayane’s father remembered something.

“My dear, do you mind speaking with caretaker Ana? She wanted a word with you.”

“Yes, father.”

Just as they left Akademeia, Ayane headed towards caretaker Ana’s room. Apparently, caretaker Ana was supposed to be in her home at this time at McTighe to attend a family feast, celebrating the peace treaty between Rubrum and Milites.

“I need your help. As you’re his sister, would you please look after him for me, just for this day... please?”

“Okay I will, caretaker. You can go home to your family now.”

Ana smiled. “Thank you, young girl. I’ll remember your kindness.”

Later, Ayane headed back to her parents’ Akademeia home, where Reon should be waiting for her. As it was bedtime, Reon already fell asleep in his room, Reon was born on the fifth day of Sileomens 823 R.G., so he was around six and a quarter years old that time, and thus, he was still bound to the _scheduled_ bedtime.

Ayane was raised as an independent person, with her parents having a goal to make her an Akademeia cadet and to follow their paths in military career after she graduated. The same was planned for Reon, they planned to start nurturing him on the age of 9, the perfect age to do so. Seeing her brother already fell asleep, Ayane decided to go to sleep as well, as it was starting to get late anyway. After all, she needed to wake up early for school the next day.

The next day, Ayane woke up with a strange feeling.

“What happened? I feel like there’s something… missing.”

Not wanting to worry it even further, she decided to head early to Akademeia as caretaker Ana had already arrived at the house to take care of Reon. During her walk, she couldn’t seem to concentrate on her footing, as a result, she collided with a senior Class First cadet, who just happened to be in hurry.

“What’s the matter with you, trainee? Watch whe—”

“S-sorry, cadet. I am not feeling well today.”

Ayane indeed looked unwell that this cadet changed her demeanor.

She asked, “Then why are you’re attending school today? Shouldn’t you get some rest instead?”

“N-no, I’m not sick. It’s just, I feel something strange today… but I don’t know why.”

The senior remained silent. Suddenly a voice was heard from afar. “Yo, Urushi! Are you coming or what?!”

“Yeah! Give me a moment!” –Urushi then looked at Ayane— “Sorry I couldn’t be more of a help. I must be going now, bye.”

With her still feeling uneasy, she headed towards her trainee lecture hall. Feeling even worse, she fell asleep in the class. Thankfully, as she went early, her instructor wasn’t at the classroom yet to start the lecture. She was awoken by one of her fellow trainee.

“Ayane? Are you still with me?” the boy said.

“Huh? Who’s there?” –she opened her eyes— “oh, it’s you, Faia. How long have I been sleeping?”

“You call that a sleep? You just dozed off five minutes ago. I saw you’re not looking well, so I woke you up.”

“What? I feel like I’ve been sleeping for hours. I’m not feeling well today.”

Like before, she also said that her wasn’t feeling well wasn’t a sickness, but rather something she couldn’t explain herself. Faia told her to just shrug it off as their instructor would arrive any minute now. Speak of the devil, she finally entered the lecture hall just as Faia took his seat further behind her. The instructor seemed… different that day.

She glared towards Ayane. “Cadet Kurayami, may I have a word with you outside?”

Just as they headed outside, there was a civil officer waiting for them. After speaking with the officer, Ayane’s instructor excused herself and re-entered the lecture hall. The civil officer then brought Ayane to the student lounge, carrying a letter with him.

The letter? As expected, it was some bad news that explained Ayane’s strange feeling that day. Inside the letter, there were two bloodied knowing tags, one of it belonged to a Legionary named “Tadeshi Kurayami”, and the other belonged to “Ai Kurayami”.

“Sorry to have you receiving something like this, Kurayami.”

“So, who are they? They had the same last name as me,” Ayane asked, frowning.

“My dear, they were your parents.”


	13. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back on the present time, the operation that Faia quoted "the hardest one yet" is about to commence. Marching with two teams consisted of three personnel each, they go on the hunt for this important Militesi scientist.

**Pet. XXXI 837 R.G.**

Nighttime arrived at the Lorican Region, Faia's team took shelter in an abandoned house near Lorican region, as according to their plan. Tomu was about to make a bonfire when Faia stopped him, reminding him they were on a secret mission. As the two sat outside, Jenifa joined them, looking bored. She took a used water bottle nearby and invited the two to a truth-or-dare game while waiting for them to get sleepy. Tomu got three consecutive hits, in which he dared all three. Faia and Jenifa agreed to make it as one, but what he had to do was to prank Kurasame after they returned from the mission. On the next round, the bottle pointed towards Jenifa, in which she chose truth. Tomu asked if she was sure to pick truth, in which she confidently said yes, she would soon regret it, though.

“Here goes nothing. So, Jenifa Nakahara, do you have a boy in mind that you liked?”

Jenifa frowned. “What kind of question was that? There was no one!”

“Funny you should say that, because this is a game of truth, not lie.”

She sighed. “Fine. I am interested in someone, but please, allow me to keep it a secret for now.”

The two burst out laughing. “My friend, we’ll know it sooner or later,” Tomu said.

They played several more rounds until Jenifa felt sleepy at last. She took the first turn sleeping with Tomu and Faia taking the watch. Tomu remembered something he did back on holiday, he shared it with Faia. Apparently, he came up with an idea of a new spell and that he already told Arecia about it. In all honesty, Arecia was impressed with his idea, it appeared that his idea could become reality anytime soon.

Their conversation was cut when Jenifa finally woke up, he took her place and Jenifa sat by Faia, she looked somewhat still sleepy.

“Morning, sleepyhead. Sleep well?”

“Not really,” she said, yawning. “What about you? You’ll be the last one to sleep, are you you’ll be okay with it?”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about that.”

“By the way… I’ve been meaning to ask you on how you are interested on Representative Miura.”

Faia said in a surprised tone, “Eh? You’re still thinking about that? Well, It’s a long story.”

“I have time.” Jenifa folded her hands. Ever the curious one, she insisted on him to tell the story.

Faia then told her the story on how he was interested in Miura, he actually knew her way back, but it was only a one-way connection. 3 years back, the then 16 years old trainee Miura was the daughter of Faia’s neighboring village Mayor. The then 15 years old trainee Faia saw her once when they visited his village during the vacation and he admitted that he fell in love in first sight.

That same day, the Imperials assaulted the village, killing both Faia’s and Miura’s parents. In the nick of time, a team of Class First cadets led by Kurasame Susaya and his champion friends saved the majority of the village. That was the point where Faia started to idolize the Four Champions of Rubrum, aiming to become like them, “heroes” as he said to Arecia before. With pure determination, Faia managed to get himself graduated from trainee status as a Class Third cadet at the age of 16. His main goal was to save as many lives as he can like the Four Champions and to prevent a disaster like in his village.

“I’ve known you for years. But, this is the first time I know about your past.”

“You’re the first to know, to be honest. I kept it to myself, I don’t want my friends to see me as a tragic person.”

“We all had our tragedies, Faia, I can assure you that. Well then, what about the Representative? What did she do after that assault?”

After the village assault, Miura was actually more motivated than ever to become an Agito cadet. With all her might, she managed to graduate with flying colors. She was initially assigned to Class First, making a history at the time as the first person to graduate from trainee status to become a Class First cadet. On her 2nd year as a Class First cadet, Faia was transferred to Class First. The two only had a short time as classmates as Miura got promoted as the Representative and transferred to Class Second as a result.

“Now that I’ve told you my story, I wanted to know yours. Tell me more about this dude you are interested on.”

She strangely blushed. “That again…? Please, I said it before that it’s a secret for now.”

“I see. Well at least tell me which class this dude belongs to.”

She blushed even further. “Class First.”

Faia chuckled. “Now I see… just you watch, with my abilities, I will soon know who it is.”

After several moments talking, Tomu eventually woke up, prompting Faia to take his turn sleeping. Despite the uncomfortable location, Faia managed to fall asleep within minutes as he was really spent due to their full day march towards the Lorican region.

Two days passed, the team finally spotted the suspected scientist said to be carrying the documents of “Gabriel”, he was heavily guarded in a makeshift camp, reassuring the team that he was the one they were looking for. His position, however, was Orience away from their initial position. This put Faia’s team on a position too far away from the secondary team, who were looking at the other direction. Regardless, Faia ignored it, knowing time was of the essence and gathered the two to devise a plan to ambush the Imperials swiftly. The area was surrounded by trees, to the team’s favor. After an hour, Jenifa managed to read a pattern on the guards, she suggested to make a diversion somewhere north of their position, Faia decided to be the diversion and sneaked past the guards.

On Tomu’s signal, Faia conjured a massive fireball towards the enemy camp, sounding the alarm, he then hid behind the tree line, waiting for the soldiers to come. Around 7 veterans descended on his position, he sneaked behind the formation and slashed 3 of them to the ground, as the other 4 veterans turned around, Faia obliterated them in inferno. In a matter of seconds, he took down all of the veterans without any hassle. Faia felt tired like never before, his magic was totally depleted after he casted that firaga spell. Even so, he felt weird that he thought “ _These guys can’t be the veterans, these guys are pathetic!_ ”

When Faia reached the camp, he saw his colleagues already have the scientist captured with several dead soldiers beside him. Faia clapped his hands sarcastically. Just as he was about to restrain the scientist, ten flying swords suddenly rained on their position, thankfully, Tomu’s reflexes saved them all as he conjured a large wall surrounding them.

“What’s going on?!” Faia shouted.

Jenifa glanced behind Faia. “Behind you!”

“Oh no, no, no… the scientist! He’s dead!”

A tall figure appeared before them, wearing the uniform of Militesi general.

“No, this is not happening!” Faia then regrouped with his friends. “It’s the Secundus l’Cie Sema!”

“Damn it! What’s a l’Cie doing here?!”

“Calm down! We’ll never win. Let’s retreat and request the secondary team to assist!”

The three retreated towards the tree line. General Semaphorus followed them, but had a difficulty finding them thanks to the cadets’ skill to blend in towards their surroundings. Hastily, Faia requested backup from the second team. Even so, there was a hole in their plan, Faia finally realized that they were too far away from the second team. It would take them a while to reach their spot. Either way, Kurasame hastily begun his march with the second group, telling the three they will assist them as soon as possible.

Suddenly, a coeurl appeared in front of Faia. His reflexes had him throw his fire magic towards the monster, killing it instantly. However, Semaphorus caught a glimpse of fire from afar and hurriedly descended towards the position. Seeing there was no point in running, Faia absorbed the coeurl’s phantoma and conjured his trusty Obsidian Blade.

“Foolish mortal, how do you plan to defeat me, a l’Cie?”

“Just so you know, I am something special.” Faia’s blade started to emit a flaming aura, to Semaphorus’ amusement.

Without hesitation, Faia charged towards Semaphorus, slashing relentlessly towards the l’Cie. From afar, Jenifa noticed it and signaled Tomu to help. The two then hurriedly descended upon Faia’s position. In the meantime, Tomu casted his protection spell towards the two. On Faia’s signal, the trio executed their triad maneuver that every Class First cadets were taught.

Jenifa was the one who stand out amongst the three, her genius in stealth helped her to sneak past Semaphorus’s guard all the while Tomu’s protection spells helped the two endured Semaphorus’ light attacks, last but not least, Faia’s fire magic managed to press Semaphorus into defense at all times. Even so, Semaphorus was a l’Cie, despite being under pressure, he endured every attack the cadets threw at him, slowly, the cadets began to tire, Semaphorus noticed something about their protection spell, that the caster was unable to protect himself in the process. In one quick move, he pressured Tomu into defense, not allowing him to protect the two.

“Damn it! He read through our moves!” Tomu shouted, “I can’t protect you for the time being.”

“Jenifa, let’s distract this Imperial scum to attack us!”

“We’re protection-less, are you sure that’s a good idea?!”

“That’s all we have right now!”

Tomu said, “I’ll be on offensive now. Be aware of my thunder magic.”

From afar, Kurasame finally spotted their position due to Faia’s fire magic and Tomu’s thunder. He dismounted from his chocobo alongside the other two. As they reached their position, Jenifa was distracted by their arrival. Semaphorus quickly called his flying swords and directed them towards the unsuspecting Jenifa. Faia dived to her rescue, but failed to do so and as a result, both of them got heavily injured.

Bloodied, Jenifa caught a sight of the one who tried to saved her. “My… hero,” she said, weakly.

“Don’t speak! Hang in there!” –Faia coughed up a lot of blood— “Oh… goodness.”

Both of them fell unconscious at the same time, Tomu sprinted to the rescue and protected the two while Kurasame conjured his iceblade and charged into the field.

“So, the Ice Reaper himself decides to enter the fray? It’s an honor,” Semaphorus said, as he bowed himself towards Kurasame.

“Ayane, Taka, Engage! Tomu, bring Faia and Jenifa to safety!”

“Yes, commander!” they shouted simultaneously.

Despite their best efforts, Kurasame and his team got nothing but injuries. Tomu tried his best to cure the unconscious Jenifa and Faia. In one sweeping motion, Semaphorus threw Ayane and Taka into the air, injuring them heavily. It was Kurasame that was left standing, he decided to use his trump card as he casted away his blade and turned the battlefield into an icy ground.

“What kind of sorcery is this?!” Semaphorus shouted.

“I am… The Ice Reaper! No one can escape… my wrath!”

From the ground, Kurasame conjured a twin blade made of ice. Re-invigorated, he charged towards the slippery ground swiftly. For the first time, Semaphorus was being pressured, he was struggling to move around the icy field, while Kurasame had no trouble whatsoever. Kurasame’s onslaught was so great that he managed to draw a drop of blood from Semaphorus. Even the l’Cie cannot withstand his onslaught, Semaphorus let his guard down and Kurasame took the opportunity to stab the l’Cie straight towards his heart.

Sema glanced towards the iceblade protruding from his chest. “Damn you, mortal! I’ll remember this!” With his strength sapped slowly, Semaphorus teleported out of the battlefield with a mixed feeling between beaten, ashamed, and furious. He promised… to return the favor.

Kurasame hurriedly tended to his downed cadets, only Tomu and the weakened Faia was left standing as they frantically mounted the wounded on their chocobos. Unfortunately, as they were out of the woods, Faia fainted and fell from his chocobo alongside the unconscious Jenifa. Kurasame mounted the two back to their chocobos and manually guide the chocobo by himself. Swiftly, he contacted Izana to bring the airship on the borders of Lorica. Exhausted, Kurasame lost his control of Faia’s chocobo, he fell down again alongside Jenifa. As he frantically tried to mount Faia and Jenifa back on their steed, a familiar figure appeared in front of them with his own chocobo.

“Need a hand, Kurasame?” the figure asked, his face shown seriousness.

“Morse?! Y-you…?!”

Tomu angrily shouted, “Damn it, Commander! Please just accept it! These guys are dying!”

Kurasame sighed. “Fine… please, help us, Morse.”

“With pleasure.”

Morse mounted Faia and Jenifa on his chocobo. With haste, they rode towards the Lorican border. Upon reaching the border, Izana was already there waiting for them in his small but swift airship. They dismounted the injured from the chocobos and boarded them above the ship.

Morse waved his hand. “Well then, Kurasame. This is the end of the line for me, be seeing you.”

“Morse, thank you, I owe you big time. Will we meet again?”

“Iscah. I’ll be there for a week before I’m gone.”

“I’ll see you in three days or four,” Kurasame said, shaking Morse’s hand at the same time.


	14. At World's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission ended, but was it a victory or a failure? They managed to get rid of the documents, but it costed them dearly.

**Ven. III 837 R.G.**

Due to the incident at the Lorican territory, several members of the Consortium headed to the Lorican capital to clarify the situation. Thankfully, the two nations were at defensive alliance at the time and the Loricans believed the Dominion’s explanation on the incident, in fact, they were thankful that the Rubrans took the initiative to exterminate the spies on their territory, furthermore, the Dominion apologized that they didn’t inform the Loricans sooner due to the gravity of the situation.

Meanwhile at Akademeia, after two days of intensive care, Faia finally woke up from his coma. On the third day, he was discharged from the infirmary after the surgeons confirmed that he fully recovered from his wounds. As he walked out of the infirmary, Ayane also walked out of her treatment room, she also fully recovered from her wounds. They were immediately ordered to put on their uniform and head towards the Central Command.

Inside, Kurasame was waiting for them alongside Tomu, Izana, Mizuki, and Miura. They took their seat and Kurasame opened the debrief.

From his hand, he threw two knowing tags on the table. “They were with us. The doctors said that they died several hours before you two finally woke up.”

Mizuki continued, “Their names are cadet Taka Kanemoto and cadet Jenifa Nakahara. I delivered these to their families, but they gave it back to us to keep it.”

“I… will keep it, then,” Faia said, as the class leader, he felt it was his responsibility to do so. Upon gripping the two knowing tags, Faia could feel the sensation of nostalgia of those fallen ones. Even though they were erased from his mind, his body was somehow still able to remember.

“ _My hero…_ ” that voice echoed through Faia’s mind as he gripped the knowing tag belonging to Jenifa Nakahara.

Miura stood up. “With the conclusion of this mission, Class First will no longer take part in Code Crimson. This is proved to be too dangerous for you all. We couldn’t afford to lose anymore Class First cadets.”

Faia, Ayane, and Tomu were thoroughly shocked. With their hearts boiling, they outright rejected it, but what good it would be? It was already signed by the Cadetmaster, for good measure too, the Dominion needed them to be available at any times, considering Class First only possessed 16 cadets after the 2 casualties, this was the time for them to back off from this secret business and return to the cold, bitter, and unpredictable battlefield they were better used to instead.

Seeing the conversation starting to get heated, Kurasame slammed at the table, shocking pretty much everyone. Kurasame’s aura was so great that everyone was terrified by him, they decided to put their heated conversation to a close. At the end of the day, Faia and his friends accepted the Cadetmaster’s decision, albeit feeling unhappy.

After all Class First cadets gathered at the classroom, they received the news they dreaded from Kurasame, they were officially out of Code Crimson. Some of the junior cadets were actually relieved, they too had the feeling that these kind of missions were out of their league, despite them being the best cadets of Akademeia. On the other side, some of the senior cadets were in disbelief, that all their efforts led into nothing as they were relieved just like that without their consent. As it was the 7th day of the week, there were no lectures that day and Kurasame left them in the classroom, he told them that they were free to do what they wanted for the rest of the day.

Actually, Kurasame had an appointment with someone outside Akademeia, that’s why he freed his cadets from duties. To his favor, the Consortium needed a messenger to inform the Mayor of Iscah that he was invited to a feast at Akademeia, as a celebration of the newly appointed Head of the Intelligence Division. Kurasame volunteered to deliver the message alongside Kazusa and Emina, in which the Consortium accepted.

Later that afternoon at the ready room, Faia was about to order a meal with Tomu and Ayane.

The chef asked, “Cadet Nishimura, fully recovered, are we? So, the usual weekly _four_ dishes of ‘Tuna on the Rocks’, then?”

“Yes. Wait… not four, but three.”

“I see. Where did the other one go? You never ordered less than four.”

Faia looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Never mind.” The chef was finally aware why Faia seemingly confused on his simple question. “Three dishes of ‘Rock n’ Roll tuna’ comin’ right up.”

After finishing their meal, Faia told his friends about his time when in coma that he had a dream. He was dreaming that he was injured in a battle alongside Ayane, Tomu, and two more Class First cadets he didn’t recognize. “ _Their faces are blurred,_ ” he said. He said that they were on an airship that said was on its way to Akademeia to bring them home after a failed mission on a place he didn’t recognize either, as they were at war with Milites, he assumed it was at their territory. At one point of his dream, one of the blurred figures spoke to him with a dying voice. “ _It was you, Faia. That Class First cadet I was talking about at the abandoned house. Thought you might want to know about it before I—_ ”

“… and after that, I woke up,” he said.

“I am just confused as you are. But you said ‘abandoned house’ right? We were camping there before our mission day, with someone? I guess…?”

“I can’t see her face, but I think that she had a long black hair. If it was a vision of my past, she must be this ‘Jenifa’ who died on our mission earlier this week. Even so… what was she talking about?”

Noticing the gloomy look on Faia’s face, Ayane said, “We cannot move forward if we keep talking about this. We’ll just have to be grateful that we’re still here.” –She then glanced towards the clock— “It’s almost time, we have to head to Dr. Arecia’s facility now.”


	15. Jenifa Nakahara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Few days earlier, Jenifa and Faia talked about something before Tomu woke up. That would be the last time Jenifa enjoys her time with Faia, the one who she loved (?).

**Ven. I 837 R.G.**

“I promise you. I’ll know it sooner or later,” Faia said, he was confident that he would eventually discover who Jenifa was talking about.

“Yeah. Whatever you say, Faia.”

Jenifa then remembered one more thing about Faia crushing on Miura. Despite being a Class First cadet, Faia was actually out of Miura’s league, where he was only a mere cadet while Miura was holding a greater position than him.

“Eh? So, you’re discouraging me now?” Faia said, narrowing his eyes.

“No. It’s not like that!”

“Actually… yeah, I’m not confident myself on this. Our ranks are just too far away. She’s an important person while I’m nothing more than a tool of war.”

“You got it all wrong, Faia. Ranks, position, status actually didn’t matter. All that matter is how you will try to make her fall in love with you.”

She was right. To encourage him, Jenifa told him a popular folktale among the Concordians. The story was about a nameless warrior summoned into an unknown world by a goddess by the name of Harmony. In this story, the world was called “The Land of Respite”, where warriors from different worlds were summoned to receive respite after their infinite battles back at their home worlds. During the middle of their respite, a crisis occurred in that world where a deity who called himself “Scar” tried to break order in the world, planning to trap the warriors eternally in that world. He summoned the counterparts of the warriors of the goddess, as his champions to defeat those warriors.

Hundreds and thousands of battles occurred in that world, slowly tearing it apart. It turned into a wasteland, unfit for its true purpose to give the residents a respite. Just as the warriors of Harmony started to lose hope, Harmony herself was weakened by the lack of her warrior’s will. And then, one nameless warrior rose to the occasion, restoring his comrades’ will. The world was slowly restored and Harmony thanked this nameless warrior for his courage to save her warriors, and herself.

After every of his battles, the nameless warrior always visited Harmony to check on her, usually alone. And as expected, this nameless warrior suddenly fell in love with the goddess. He confessed to one of his comrades, a warrior hailing from Orience, that he loved her.

Faia interrupted. “Hold on. Warrior from Orience? I can feel this is a made up story.”

“Well, that’s what I heard from the Concordians. Besides, that’s rude, you know? Interrupting me in the heat of it.”

“Right, sorry. Carry on,” Faia said, feeling embarrassed.

Continuing the story, this nameless warrior later confessed to the others that he loved the goddess. As expected, they were not so confident with him, he was way too different with Harmony, he was a human and Harmony was a goddess, that was already too wrong in every direction. But thankfully, as time went by, one of the warrior named Luna, encouraged him that it was possible for him to make the goddess fall in love with him. She didn’t tell him what to do, though, she only told him that he needed to believe in himself that he was capable in doing so.

Feeling reinvigorated, he kept visiting Harmony. And just like that, Harmony miraculously started to feel love towards this nameless warrior. One day, the nameless warrior confessed his feelings towards the goddess, and in turn, in shocking revelation, the goddess revealed that she fell in love with him too.

“And they lived happily ever after,” Jenifa said.

“So… the morale of this story is that ‘whoever you are, as long as you’re determined, never stop aiming for it’ is that it?”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m rooting for you to be more serious in your efforts in chasing after the Representative, Faia.”

Faia smiled. “Thank you, Jenifa. I’ll promise to treat all of you guys lunch if I succeeded in my efforts.”

“That’s more like it!”

After she finished her story, Tomu finally woke up from his deep sleep. And thus, it was Faia’s turn to sleep as Tomu took a seat beside Jenifa, talking with her. After some moments, noticing that Faia already fell asleep, Tomu changed the topic of their conversation.

Tomu narrowed his eyes. “That’s not the end of the story, right?”

“What story?”

“The one you told Faia just now.”

“What? So you heard us talking all along?!”

Smirking proudly, Tomu said, “Yeah, I’m a light sleeper, so I pretty much heard everything.”

Tomu was right, the ending of Jenifa’s story was a slightly modified than what it should’ve been. The nameless warrior and Harmony indeed fell in love towards each other in the end. But that was not the end, as suddenly, Scar emerged stronger than ever after gathering all of his warriors’ strength as one. Emerging as a stronger force, the warriors of Harmony couldn’t withstand his wrath, as he effortlessly ruined all their recovery efforts, turning the world into wasteland, once again. But this time, there was no going back, the world cannot be recovered anymore and it seemed that the warriors were trapped eternally in that world.

Driven with love, Harmony gathered what’s left of her powers after fighting Scar to teleport her warriors safely out of the world. They weren’t sent home just yet, instead, they were sent to a new “Land of Respite”, with all of her warriors losing all of their memories on the previous world. As for the nameless warrior, even he couldn’t escape the fate of losing his memory of Harmony. In the end, it was a tragic love story, not a happy one.

“Why did you go over the distance to encourage him, Jenifa?”

She blushed. “I wanted to see him happy.”

“Okay, understandable. So you’re not jealous after all, huh?”

She blushed even further. “What? No, I—”

Tomu smirked. “You’re talking with detective Tomu here, Jenifa. I know everything.”

“Okay, I admit it, I’m in love with him. That idiot… still clueless after everything I’ve done,” she said, smiling in tears.

“No, no, no, please don’t cry, Jenifa, not now… please. I understand your feelings.”

“Thank you, Tomu. Just so you know, I’m happy for him in the end. As his friend, I’m rooting for his success, I will do everything in my power to help him.”

“We all will, Jenifa. We all will.”


	16. The Two Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurasame finally set out on his journey towards Iscah to forward the Consortium's invitation to the Mayor, but he had one more thing on his mind, will he meet this old friend that he promised to meet several days before?

**Ven. III 837 R.G.**

Kurasame finally reached Iscah alongside Emina and Kazusa. It was a short trip thanks to the new _lightning fast_ Dominion airship. After delivering the Consortium’s message, they headed towards the pub. Emina seemed to be most excited one as she had been meaning to try Iscah’s _Special Beer_ that everyone talked about back at instructor’s office back at Akademeia. Between their drinks, Kazusa asked Kurasame if he knew that the Prime Deputy Liaison Fuyou Tomoshibi was planning to retire by the end of year 837 R.G., Kurasame shook his head, he didn’t know because he was rarely at Akademeia these few weeks past to have heard news such as that.

“That’s not surprising at all. You never liked politics anyway. But try to guess the person who will replace him.”

Kurasame couldn’t guess who it was.

“You’re hopeless…” Emina said, “I’ll give you a clue: her last name is the same as Prime Deputy Fuyou.”

Kurasame was shocked. “No! It couldn’t be… don’t tell me it’s Aoi!”

“Bingo! You got that right, Mr. Captain Commander!” Kazusa said.

“What’s with that look?” Emina looked flustered. “Oh now I get it. I almost forgot that she was your old flame.”

And then, for several agonizing minutes, they mercilessly and endlessly teased his past with her. Thankfully, the one he was looking for finally arrived just as Kurasame had enough of the two. It was Morse, as he glanced left and right, he noticed it was too crowded for their conversation, he politely asked them to head towards the inn he resided in.

Inside his room on his inn, they talked about Kurasame’s mission at the Lorican territory. Morse asked him if it was true that Milites’ Secundus l’Cie appeared during their confrontation, in which Kurasame confirmed. With a serious face, Morse told Kurasame to say out loud the l’Cie’s full name.

“His name? General Semaphorus Axelsen. What about it?”

“Allow me to reintroduce myself… My full name is Morse, Axelsen. General Semaphorus Axelsen, the l’Cie… is in fact my father.”

“Your father… a l’Cie?” Emina asked.

“Yes. I was not always like this. I am not a crazy person that you all thought about me.”

Kazusa fixed his glasses as he wandered back and forth across the room. “But you murdered your own people mercilessly back then.”

“Milites… they took my father from me, he’s all I got left in this world. It was thanks to him that I was able to rose through the ranks of the military. I hoped that by acting crazy, he could… realize his… but no… I forgot that a l’Cie paid a heavy price to become one, it’s his emotion.

“I still possessed the communication device that is used by Milites on their missions, upon hearing his and your involvement in that skirmish, I rode quickly all over the world to reach you… but when I got there, it was already over and all I can see was that you were carrying your wounded cadets.”

Kurasame leaned his back towards the wall. “So, tell me, what is your true purpose? Just so you know, you were a threat for us back then.”

“That time… I was still in state of desperation that I had nothing to do but to fight, fight and fight. But now, I’m different… all I want now is to see Milites razed to the ground after everything they’ve done.

“And I assume you still don’t trust me, aren’t you? I don’t care about that.” –Morse then put his right hand up— “But you witnessed by your own eyes my goodwill.”

All three of them were shocked by his statement, he was right. If he was indeed still hostile towards them, Kurasame, or his cadets, were most likely dead by now due to the fact that Morse was a trained assassin. Finally, Kurasame truly trusted Morse, albeit reluctantly. The proofs of his goodwill indeed existed.

Before they realized it, it was already dark and therefore, the airship could not pick-up Kurasame and his friends until the next day. Morse offered a room beside his, in fact, he already prepared it long before their arrival. They accepted it while they were waiting for the next day to come to return to Akademeia.

At the middle of the night, Emina went out of her room and headed towards the terrace of the inn. Unsurprisingly, Morse was there.

“I knew you would come, Emina. We’ve got a lot to talk about.” Morse took a deep breath. “Have you decided to leave Milites yet?”

“I wanted to, but it wasn’t that simple. You’re alleged to no one after you went rogue. As for me, I am tied with The Dominion.”

Emina was right to be afraid, the Dominion couldn’t tolerate traitors amidst them. Whether that spy turn themselves in or not, they would meet the same fate anyway, “death”. There was one way though, she could’ve just leave it all behind and erase her spy mark on her back, but it wasn’t easy, as she couldn’t reach it by herself. Glaring creepily towards her, Emina knew what he meant the second he did so.

“I know that look, don’t even think about it.”

“Well, if you don’t trust me to do that, have Kurasame or that four eyed friend of yours to do it.”

“They’re both dudes! It could get awkward if I suddenly undress myself in front of them!”

Morse laughed. “It’s your problem, Emina. You have to get rid of it, one way or another.”


	17. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morse talked with Emina, trying to ensure Emina's identity remained safe as he asked her to leave Milites behind and commit herself to the Dominion instead. Although, Morse is known as a careless person, someone was tracking him on his way to Iscah.

**Ven. IV 837 R.G.**

Morse told Emina to do whatever it takes to remove her trace as a Milites spy and to swear her allegiance to Rubrum for him. Emina said that she’ll come up with something as soon as possible. Noticing it was getting very late, the two started to head back. Just as Morse glanced towards the front door, he noticed something was off.

He shouted, “Emina! Look out!”

Morse dived to Emina’s rescue. Hundreds of bullets rained down on their position, it was coming from the front door. Luckily, the terrace provided enough cover for them to endure the gunfire.

“Those are Militesi weaponries! Suppressed rifles, they must be looking for me.”

“Damn it, what do we do then?!” Emina said as she crouched behind cover.

Morse took a peek towards the door. “We couldn’t shout for help as that will help them direct their fire. You’re a Rubran, Emina… conjure a wall so we can jump out of this terrace!”

“What about Kazusa and Kurasame?!”

“They’ll be fine! Like I said, they are looking for me!”

Emina collected her composure, she eventually managed to conjure a wall exactly at the door, blocking any projectiles that were fired towards them. As they get closer towards the ledge, Emina stumbled and Morse turned back to pick her up. Unfortunately, this caused Emina’s wall to crumble, allowing the assailants to pour the terrace. They surrounded the two and aimed their rifles towards them.

The enemy commander opened his mask. “Well, well boys… it seems that we can kill two birds with one stone. Thank you, Morse.”

“Master Sergeant Charon! How did you find me?”

Charon smirked. “You think you’re so smart? Tapping into our communications like that? Thanks to Qun’mi and Ines, we were able to track an anomaly in our comms and pinpointed your location in here.

“And you, Emina. Marshall Cid was so disappointed in your failure. He expected more from his number one spy.” –Charon reloaded his rifle— “Any last words, traitors?”

Suddenly, someone shouted from afar, “IMPERIAL SCUMS! OVER HERE!” three cadets teleported right in front of the Imperials and pushed them straight towards the stairs, giving them enough time to escape

Morse was shocked. “You?! I remember you! What are you kids doing here?!”

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Sergeant Morse. Jump now!” it turned out to be Faia, Ayane, and Tomu.

Morse nodded and they jumped from the terrace. Charon noticed them going down and rushed to follow them downstairs. Thanks to the darkness, Charon’s force had a difficult time spotting the five of them. Faia lured them with small quiet fire magic to the town center so that they could stand a chance in close range fight. Charon’s force took the bait and they headed towards the town center blindly. This was the moment Ayane and Tomu waiting for, they threw their weapons straight towards the enemy. Magically, both of them were able to teleport into their weapons, it caused a shockwave that threw the soldiers back.

“Damn! I could get used to this ‘warping’ thing,” Ayane shouted in excitement.

Tomu also shouted in excitement, “Dr. Arecia is indeed a genius, my friend.”

Faia said through the COMM, “Remember, don’t use elemental magic in here, it would be loud. Warp hit-and-run only.”

“Yes sir!” the two replied

Faia noticed that their concentration being split and thus, he decided to enter the fray, he did the same thing Ayane and Tomu did. As soon as they cut an enemy down, they would just warp out of harm and repeat the same process again. Seeing no way out, two Imperial soldiers charged heroically towards the vulnerable Morse and Emina. Charon used this chance to escape with several of his soldiers. Faia and his team tried to catch them, but they knew better to prioritize their allies, and thus, they warped towards the two soldiers. Killing both of them instantly.

Ayane gazed towards the direction Charon escaped into. “There’s still time. We can catch him!”

“No! They are retreating in fear, let them go. They knew better that they couldn’t beat Rubran cadets in a fair fight.”

“He’s right. It’s dark anyway, who could’ve guess that they planned to ambush us if we catch them,” Tomu said.

“Shouldn’t you be at Akademeia? It’s illegal to walk out at night.”

Faia replied, “Well, I suppose there’s no hiding it. We ‘are’ sneaking out to train at Bethel’s Grotto, Ms. Emina. We are supposed to field test what you just saw earlier.

“Come to think of it, what is your purpose here, Ms. Emina? Not to mention that you’re here with Sergeant Morse.”

Emina then explained that she was on a delivery mission with Kazusa and Kurasame. She claimed that they were ambushed by monsters just outside Iscah and were rescued by Morse, weirdly. Suddenly, Kurasame arrived with Kazusa, they were worried that they didn’t see Emina and Morse anywhere that they decided to look for them, they were even more surprised after seeing the mess they’ve made there, nobody could come upon a sane excuse to explain about the 10 dead bodies of Militesi soldiers on the town square.

“We are here under Dr. Arecia’s orders to train at Bethel’s Grotto, we saw those Imperials on our way there, so we decided to investigate.”

“I see. Very well, make sure nobody came out of their homes to see this mess you’ve made. We’re on the same boat here, we don’t want to explain this to the Dominion either.”

“Let’s make sure nobody knows about this,” Kazusa said. “Do you need help, cadets?”

“No, we’re fine. We’ll keep this between ourselves.”

Morse smiled. “It appears that I owe you even more this time, Rubrans. I’ll see you again next time.”

As the four disappeared from their sight, Faia turned to his friends. “Alright, the usual?” he said, smirking.

“Alright, let’s get on with it and return to Akademeia. Dr. Arecia would be pleased by our results.”

“Wait, our involvement here must remain in secret. What if she reported it to the Consortium?” Ayane asked.

“She wouldn’t,” –Faia absorbed the phantomas of their fallen enemies— “we’re at an unsanctioned mission. Besides, she didn’t get along that well with several Consortium members, reporting us would also put her under pressure.”


	18. Motherly Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faia and his gang just did something "extraordinary" on their confrontation with Charon's task force, what was this "warping" thing that they used in the battle? Just what kind of powers Arecia bestowed upon these trio?

**Ven. III 837 R.G.**

Many hours earlier after their lunch at the ready room, Faia and his friends headed towards Arecia’s facility outside Akademeia. Apparently, Arecia succeeded in making Tomu’s idea a reality that she wanted to see them. During Class First’s vacation after the Battle of Meroe, Tomu came up with a theory about teleportation. He thought, “ _If our weapons can be called back to its owner, what about the reversed version of it?_ ” he had the idea of reversing that magic, essentially creating a new maneuver where the owner of a weapon can teleport to their weapons after being thrown off their hands. As an addition, the owner can thrust their weapons at the moment they came into contact with their weapons, creating an area of shockwave.

At the facility, Arecia presented them a tome containing the incantations of spells Arecia invented, on the last page the newly invented “warp” spell was written. The trio was pleased by her ability to make Tomu’s idea into reality. Despite the challenges, there was nothing that could stop Arecia from coming up with this new type of magic. After giving them the tome, she told them to test it out at the arena before they could use it at the field, she warned them to use the warping carefully as there should be possibilities of a friendly fire if not used carefully.

At first, the trio’s warping seemed to be all over the place. Even at one point, Faia threw his weapons too high above the ground. When he warped back to his blade, he fell down head first to the ground. As for Tomu, he made a mistake warping way too close to Ayane, leading to him attacking Ayane, injuring her slightly. Despite all these, Arecia seemed patient, she knew that they would eventually master the spell.

During a break, she gave them pointers on how to execute the warp properly, that the key on warping was that they had to concentrate at their target instead of worrying where they landed. Amazingly, the trio managed to fix their problems in a short period, finally managing to glide around the arena like a flash. Imagine that everyone at Class First was able to use this spell, they would become an unstoppable, unpredictable, and extremely flexible killing machines, giving their adversaries no chance to counter-attack.

During the end of their training, Arecia came upon them. “So, what’s your verdict? Would you allow these to be used by your fellow Class First cadets?”

“Of course! We will be unstoppable! With this, Milites will be razed to the ground before you know it,” Ayane confidently replied.

“Very well then.” Arecia then glared towards Faia. “You know what to do then, Faia.”

“Yes, Doctor. I will tell everyone to meet you at the Sorcery Division tomorrow.”

Tomu called Arecia. “You’re taking great care of us ever since you bring us to your project. To be honest, I expected us to be nothing more than a lab rat. Well, you know the rumors...”

Arecia smiled. “Is that so? Then you see can see now how wrong those rumors were.”

Before leaving the facility, Arecia wanted them to test their new spell on a real battleground. There wouldn’t be a better place to test it than the Bethel’s Grotto not far from the town of Iscah, the place was said to contain many types of dangerous monsters. The trio was excited that they immediately marched there without hesitation even though it was night already.

Hours later, they reached the vicinity of Iscah. Suddenly, Faia noticed some figures moving in dark clothing in the horizon. “Look. Who are those guys? They seemed to be heading towards Iscah.”

“Damn it,” Tomu whispered, “I know it’s dark, but those are Milites’ insignia on their clothing!”

“Great eye, Tomu. What should we do?”

“You’re the boss, Faia, we’ll follow your orders.”

Faia thought for a moment, they weren’t far out from Bethel’s Grotto, but then again Militesi soldiers in their territory wasn’t a good sign either. He decided to follow them inside alongside Tomu and Ayane. The soldiers seemed to be taking a scenic route, probably to avoid detection from the citizens inside. Ayane spotted them entering an inn and told them to hold still. Not long after, a bright flash came from the inn’s terrace, prompting the trio to run towards the inn. They warped towards the terrace as a quick response, to their surprise, they saw Sergeant Morse and Emina hiding behind cover.


	19. The First Battle of the Big Bridge I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hour draws closer, another great battle will soon take place in the Big Bridge, Marshall Cid had a plan to ensure their victory. If they managed to secure a victory, their path towards Akademeia Peristylium will be wide open.

**Ven. IV 837 R.G.**

Master Sergeant Charon safely returned to Ingram, despite only having half of his squad left behind at the territory, assuming they were probably captured, dead, or even worse. With hesitation, he reported to Marshall Cid Aulstyne of his failure on his capture on Morse, he added that Morse was even currently in contact with Emina. Surprisingly, Cid pardoned his failure, but as a punishment, he was appointed to lead the main army on their assault on the Big Bridge after the Imperials were pushed back from Meroe region. It turned out that Charon’s mission to capture Morse was only a secondary mission, his primary mission was to gather intelligence of the Dominion’s current strength at the borders. With this preliminary report, if a battle should take place there anytime soon, the Imperials would outnumber the Legion nearly 3 to 1, not good for the Legion, obviously.

“So, I will be leading an army of 10.000, what about the other 20.000?”

“Good question,” Cid said, “the 5.000 Magitek Armor flanking company will be led by 1st Lieutenant Faith, while the 15.000 mixed company are on the hands of Colonel Bashtar. I know that you didn’t get along with Bashtar that well, but for the sake of victory, do get along with him.”

Charon sighed. “That, I can manage. What about my 2nd in command?”

“Your second in command will be Captain Qun’mi, this will be her 1st major battle, do look after her for me.”

“I will. When do we start?”

“Marching orders will be issued one month from this day. Be prepared, Master Sergeant.”

“I will, Marshall.”

Cid gazed upon the window of his office. “Good. Bring me victory, Master Sergeant. If you manage to bring me victory this time, then maybe I will promote you as head of our infantry regiment.”

Not long after Charon left, a young scientist entered the Marshall’s chamber, he was carrying the reports of their newly developed Crystal Jammer MK.0. Upon a careful inspection of the report, Cid gave the young scientist a pat on his head, he seemed to be pleased by the initial reports that indicated that the Crystal Jammer appeared to be working in a large radius, this would help them on their upcoming battle on the Big Bridge.

The young scientist asked, “Father, if we win, what are you planning to do next?”

“If we win, our path towards Rubrum will be wide open. We shall waste no time and invade their precious Akademeia Peristylium.”

The scientist smiled. “Will you allow me to accompany the troops by then?”

“You’re still 13, Lean. I cannot allow you to risk your life on the battlefield at this moment.”

Lean seemed upset. “But father, I want to be the one who raises our flag when we win on our final battle.”

“You will. When the time’s right, Lean,” he said as he patted on Lean’s shoulder.

Meanwhile at Steelworks 01, Colonel Bashtar was currently discussing their plan of assault alongside Lieutenant Faith, all the while they were overseeing the Crystal Jammer’s final preparations. Below, Qun’mi tirelessly walked back and forth, seemingly issuing orders for the scientists.

One of the scientists noticed Qun’mi starting to tire as she called her. “Lady Qun’mi, please do take a break. Why don’t you talk with Colonel Bashtar and Lieutenant Faith in the meantime? I can take command for a while.”

Qun’mi seemed reluctant. “If I have to take a break, then you all have to take a break as well.”

“O-okay, do you want me to tell the others then?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, Ines,” she said in a relieved tone.

“Anytime, Lady Qun’mi.”

The lead scientist 2nd in command Ines Belfare then issued the order for all of the scientists to take a break, to their relief. They all appeared to be on the edge as Marshall Cid pushed the development to be finished as soon as possible, but thanks to Qun’mi’s “less demanding” behavior, they could fully commit on the project better without the fear of failure.

Just as Qun’mi and Ines joined Faith and Qator’s discussion, Charon also arrived. Bringing the topic of the upcoming battle, they discussed about the threat of the cadet force that would probably be deployed by the Dominion, not to mention Charon’s discovery of the cadets’ new ability on the battlefield that he quoted “teleporting skills.” Faith laughed by Charon’s discovery, feeling it all didn’t make sense even though Rubrum relied on magic.

“I am aware of their magic capabilities,” he said, “but, teleporting? That’s one impossible thing to do, even with magic.”

“Is that so? Then how would you explain the deaths of half of my experienced troops in the hands of 3 mere cadets?” Charon slammed the table. “You know what? If you don’t believe me, then I’ll be more than happy to show you this…”

Charon showed all of them a video feed from one of his soldiers, showing a footage of Faia, Ayane, and Tomu warping around the battlefield like it was a natural thing for them to do. Reaction varied between them, Qator and Qun’mi seemed to be amused, while Faith felt ashamed to be wrong, as for Ines, she felt terrified.

Qun’mi shrugged. “Well, it won’t matter after we deploy the Crystal Jammer Mk.0.”

“The Crystal Jammer, you say?” Charon said, “So it’s finally time for this thing to be deployed on a large scale battle. Make sure we deploy it this time, unlike before where there was confusion leading to the jammer not being deployed.”

“Then it is concluded. Victory is at hand, one way or another. Master Sergeant Charon, we’ll trust your command in this,” Qator said, surprisingly, considering his rivalry with Charon.

“Whatever you say, Bashtar. Now, we only have a month left and we still have a lot to discuss. I need status report on your respective Magitek Armors.”

Each commander possessed a Magitek Armor of their own, Qator was confident that his Gabriel Mk.0 was ready and raring to go. As for Faith, The Blackburn was still in maintenance after an unexpected malfunction the other day, but with a strong conviction, he reassured them that it would be battle ready in a week. For Qun’mi, the newly invented Vajra was ready for her to use, she even took her free time to train with it. Lastly, Charon’s Alpha Brionac was raring to go, this Magitek Armor was the largest and most advanced battle machine they possessed despite Charon had the lowest rank amongst them. Last but not least, Ines reported that the development of Leraje and Dainsleif were nearing completion.

“Ah, our wild cards. So, who will have the honors of those special MA’s?” Qator asked.

“Well, the Dainsleif is still in discussion,” Ines said, but deep inside, she wanted to become the pilot of The Dainsleif, undoubtedly. “The Leraje, it is confirmed to be young Lean’s MA later on when The Marshall judged him to be ready.”

“Lean Hampelmann, huh? The Marshall’s _specially_ adored adoptive son.”

“Don’t be like that, Charon. The kid just went through a tough time now that he’s the last living member of Hampelmann household ever since that battle.”

“What are you, my mother now, Faith? Either way, I have to admit he’s a genius by all means. Must’ve got it from his father, whoever that was.”

Qator stood up. “His father? Howitzer Hampelmann… yes, that’s all we remember about the man… his name.” Qator sighed. “I have a feeling that he was a great figure in the Empire.”

Back at the Marshall’s office, an unexpected guest surprised him by his presence, after his defeat at the hands of a normal human being, he finally showed up after seemingly went missing for days.

“So you finally decided to come. The fear of failing to fulfill your Focus still haunts you, I presume?”

“Marshall Cid, allow me to accompany the army to bring you victory at the Big Bridge.”

Cid certainly cannot allow him to take part whatsoever. Semaphorus’s involvement in the skirmish at the Lorican territory already stirred the whole world, both Lorican Alliance and the Concordia Kingdom weren’t very happy with Milites breaching the Fabula Pact. With anger boiling inside him, both of his eyes locked towards the l’Cie, not showing a single hint of fear, despite him only being a human. Cid threatened Semaphorus to send him into an impossible mission should he pull another unwanted stunt.

“I did what Nimbus didn’t have the guts to do. Thanks to Nimbus’ ignorance, we lost our key on Gabriel MK. I’s development.”

Cid was angered even further. “How dare you! Just what is it that you want that you insisted on going to battle?”

“Revenge.”

“No, that’s not it. You just wanted to fulfill your bloodlust, is that it? Even though you lost your humanity, your bloodlust still remained inside you.

“If you insist so, I’ll fulfill your bloodlust. Now, the development of the Ultima Bomb at _Steelworks Zero_ is nearing completion. I want you to use your powers to develop it even further. That is your Focus, now.”

Semaphorus wanted to refuse, but a l’Cie was bound to a Focus, Semaphorus knew better not to defy the will of their Crystal, even though he knew that the Crystal’s will was already bent towards Cid’s will for a long time. But then again, knowing what an Ultima Bomb was, this apocalypse bringer should be more than enough to fulfill his bloodlust.


	20. The First Battle of the Big Bridge II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A month passed like a flash, in Rubrum, everyone was anxious regarding the Empire's plan to invade the Big Bridge, they are significantly outnumbered if they only involve the regulars, they needed more troops in order to win or at least keep them at bay.

**Pyr. V 837 R.G.**

“ _Just another day at the office,_ ” that was the word Kurasame mumbled everytime he stepped on the instructor’s office. There hasn’t been an operation for him and Class First for a long time now ever since their dismissal from Code Crimson, the only thing they got closest to a battle was the routine training at the arena, even so, the Class First cadets still had a homework on their hands, they were yet to perfect their warping skills. Currently, warping was only limited for Class First cadets and their CO for use, it wouldn’t matter as the other classes were probably unaware of the existence of warping in the first place.

During a fifteen-minute break, three of the senior cadets joined Faia on the sidelines, they were complaining about them not getting no way near perfection on warping arts, but it seemed that Tomu and Ayane, “the juniors”, were able to master it like nobody else could.

“Those rookies… Ayane and Tomu were able to master it with great ease, like you.”

“I told you, it all comes to willpower, Hiro,” Faia said while he was sharpening his blade.

The other senior, Yui, said, “Nonsense. We were on the same level, dude. There has to be something more to that.”

“Well, attending class more often rather than spending most of your time skipping class probably would help.” Yoji joked.

“Hey! It has nothing to do with it.”

“Look… I am just as clueless as you guys. Just, try harder, okay?”

Just as they headed back to the field, a Tribune arrived, he interrupted the training session and called Kurasame and the class leader to report to the central command immediately. Faia was intrigued by this, he probably knew where this would lead into. Before leaving, Kurasame ordered the remaining cadets to continue their training for 30 more minutes.

Just as Kurasame and Faia left the arena, Ayane’s gut told her that there would be another large scale operation coming up. It would be great and terrifying at the same time. Being the youngest cadet of them all, she gave it all on the drill, eager to show her seniors how age didn’t matter at all. Ever the unyielding one she was, she tirelessly gave her fellow cadets pointers on how to warp effectively.

Remembering what Arecia said to her, “ _Focus on your target rather than where you will end up._ ” She said the exact same words towards her seniors and fellow juniors. Hearing this, they started changing their pattern. They were gradually improving, only within minutes, they were Class First cadets, after all, they were taught to improvise and learn quickly. Just before the sun went down, they all finally got the hang of it, not nearly as perfect, but enough to make Militesi soldiers tremble in fear.

Tapping her shoulders, Tomu was very pleased. “That’s just amazing. You might be the youngest of us all, but you got leadership in you.”

“Please, I’m still way behind Faia’s leadership, he’s the real deal.”

Yoji said, “I agree with Tomu. Should we find ourselves in need of more leaders, you should step up, Ayane.”

Her face reddened. “If that’s what you guys wanted… I think I could try.”

Inside the central command, the whole Consortium was there and representative Miura was currently talking with the 1st Legion commander, Tsurugi Satoshi. This was a rare sight for both Kurasame and Faia, if they were to be called upon a battle, Tsurugi only needed to relay it through Miura from the field without having to go to Akademeia. Anxiety struck Faia, he felt something big was about to come. Upon closer look, he saw that Tsurugi also brought the 2nd “Behemoth” Legion commander, Tribune Shinji Nakamura and the 3rd “Dualhorn” Legion commander, Legate Sayaka Satoshi, Tsurugi’s cousin.

Seeing Kurasame’s arrival, Tsurugi halted his conversation with Miura. “There’s the Ice Reaper, we had a lot to discuss, people.”

Taking their seats, they brought the most interesting discussion at the most interesting time.

“I assume we are going back to the field,” Kurasame said, assuming another large battle was about to come.

“Your assumption is correct. The Empire finally made its move again after their defeat at Meroe. This time, they numbered between 20.000 to 30.000 and are marching towards the Big Bridge as we speak.”

It was indeed a large number, but it was only a quarter of their full fighting force.

Faia asked, “How many can the Legion send to the Big Bridge at this time?”

“At most, we could only send 20.000 at this time, all of my 10.000 Legionaries will take part, while each 5.000 will be contributed by Tribune Nakamura and Legate Satoshi. They couldn’t afford to fully commit their troops as they had their own tasks to manage.”

As they continued their briefing, it was revealed that Nakamura and Satoshi were unable to participate, and thus, their 5.000 donated troops had to be commanded by someone in that room. Kurasame wanted to command the troops, but he had his cadets to command as well. On the other hand, Tsurugi cannot command an army that large. Despite his reputation, he already had 10.000 soldiers in command, not to mention the pending 5.000 troops from the Evocatus, he already had his hands full to gather the scattered Evocatus throughout Rubrum.

With little option available, Kurasame was handed the command of the 10.000 donated troops and for the first time, Class First would act independently without a CO under Faia, this would be “unofficially” his first time acting as field commander. Even though he only had 15 cadets to command, their lives were at the hands of Faia, dead or alive, he would take responsibility for all of his actions. As usual, the operational command would be in the hands of the Commandant for the Legion and Representative Miura for the cadets. They were to march upon the Big Bridge by nightfall, both the Empire and the Dominion viewed this as their final battle. Their ultimate fates were just one decisive battle away.

After relaying the information to his classmates, Faia walked towards the terrace, there was still some hours left until his marching orders. It was almost as if he wanted to enjoy the dusk peacefully one last time, who would’ve known that he could get killed alongside his classmates in the battle. Upon feeling satisfied, he started walking back inside, only to be halted by Miura that had just arrived at the terrace. Faia was worried even further by the presence of Miura, he couldn’t imagine that they just met here this day and on the next day she would be standing here as if Faia never existed.

“Those knowing tags, why are you still holding onto them?”

“They remind me of the risks upon the battlefield. I don’t want myself holding more of these by the end of the battle, if I come back alive, that is.”

Noticing he looked somewhat different, she said, “Worrying too much will get you killed the next day.”

“You’re right.” Faia took a deep breath, he then put the two knowing tags inside his pocket, only to take another out. “Either way, I wanted you to have this.”

Miura frowned. “This is, wait… this is your knowing tag!”

“Indeed. Well, if you don’t remember me anymore the next day or two… please read this.” Faia then handed her a sealed letter, in which she accepted somewhat reluctantly. “Put it beside your bed so you’ll know when to read it.”

“O-okay… I will.”

Faia laughed. “Don’t you dare to read it when I’m alive. If I returned home safely… I will want those things back.”

“If you say so…” Miura then patted his shoulders. “Well then, be careful, _friend_.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Representative.”

Meanwhile, Ayane used her free time to visit her brother in his dorm. She was impressed on how Reon was able to manage the room by himself at this age, Reon remarked that they were told to take care of the room as if it was a living thing and that they could get scolded if the room was a mess. He also proudly told her that he was getting better day by day, he stated that if he was able to become a cadet someday, he would be assigned to Class First, just like Ayane. Hearing this, Ayane barely managed to hold back her tears, she couldn’t be more proud after what she heard from her little brother. Just months ago, she thought that Reon was hopeless, but that day, as she talked with him, the grey trainee cape Reon wore suddenly turned into light blue cape in Ayane’s eyes, envisioning him as a Class First cadet.

Seeing his sister silently smiling, Reon asked, “What’s the matter? You were silent for a bit, a little creepy if you ask me.”

“No… I’m just… really proud of you, Reon.” –She waved her hand— “I could be in tears talking about this even further.”

Reon laughed. “Okay, my bad. Well then, what’s on your mind then?”

“Hmm… I don’t have anything interesting to talk about, let’s hear more from you instead.”

“Okay. So, if I remember correctly, in a week or so, it will be one of my fellow trainee’s birthday.”

“Interesting. Who’s the birthday girl?”

“Wait, ‘girl’? How did you…?” he said, seemingly shocked.

Ayane smirked. “I just know it. You’re blushing when you said that. Now who’s the birthday girl?”

“It’s that girl, Miyu.”

“Ah, the silver haired girl. What do you want to do about it?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to give her a present! But I don’t know what I should give her. Besides, I’m short on gil, so maybe you should… well, you know…”

Ayane patted him on his head. “Consider it done, brother. I’ll see what I can come up with.”

“Thanks!” Reon shouted in joy. “I knew I could count on you, sis!”

“Your welcome. For now, tell me more about her.”

Lastly, Tomu and the rest of the class trained one last time before they depart. Seemingly reinvigorated by the announcement of war, the Class First cadets were surprisingly able to slowly master the arts of warping even further. Most importantly, both the seniors and juniors were finally able to hit their targets precisely with their warp-strike move. Despite Kurasame told them to get some rest, they insisted on continuing their training until their marching orders arrived. The senior Yoji commenced a mock-up battle consisted of two squads fighting for victory, for fairness’ sake, he split the teams evenly between the seniors and the juniors.

“Looking good, Ran!” Tomu shouted in the middle of the fight.

“Well, we gotta keep up with the seniors somehow.”

“Man, this feels good!” Yoji said, “you kids better try to keep up!”

“Whoops!” Tomu shouted as he spotted someone warped towards him. “Not this time, Haruka!”

“Not this time?” Haruka smirked, she glanced towards her left. “Akira! Now!”

Haruka turned out to be a decoy as Akira flanked Tomu from behind. With Tomu out of the battle, his squad was ultimately defeated by Yoji’s squad, ending their training session as the sun was finally setting. They should be getting their marching orders by now, but it seemed Kurasame was still nowhere to be seen, Tomu told his friends that Kurasame was probably with his friends, Kazusa and Emina.

About Kurasame? He was at the instructor’s office alongside Kazusa, he admitted to him that he was a little afraid this time, but above all else, he feared the lives of his cadets now that the command of the cadets was not on his hands. If one, two, or even more cadets died at the battle the next day, Kurasame still would’ve felt it was his responsibility instead of Faia’s.

During the middle of their conversation, Kazusa interrupted Kurasame. “Sorry, I just noticed it’s 1900 hours already. I gotta go, Kurasame, there’s a project that’s already on its deadline on my hands.”

“I understand, good luck, Kazusa. Don’t stay out too late, as usual.”

Kazusa laughed. “I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Few moments after he left, Kurasame donned his mask and gloves, he was ready to go until suddenly someone abruptly halted him.

“I need you to come with me, I won’t be long, I promise.”

“Emina? Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you for too long.”

“I’m waiting for you to be alone, now please follow me.” Emina looked worried through the eyes of Kurasame, she brought him to the terrace where there was no one there to disturb them.

Kurasame sighed. “Okay, why are you bringing me here now? My cadets would already be waiting as we speak.”

“Listen… I just want to say… be careful, Kurasame. That’s all.”

Kurasame was deeply shocked, why Emina brought him here just for that? He knew there was something else she wanted to say. Kurasame was no physician, but he just knew it by only looking through her expression. “Thank you? I guess,” he said, “that’s not just it, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah… I want you to come back alive, for me. When you return, I need your help on something.”

“Okay, okay, no promises though. If I don’t come back alive, ask Kazusa instead,” he said, half serious.

Emina looked upset. “I’m being serious! Be careful, Kurasame.”

“Fine… I’m sorry. I promise I’ll return.”

The long awaited nightfall finally arrived and Kurasame finally arrived at the front gates, all of his cadets glanced towards him, they all must’ve thought _it’s not usual for him to be this late._ Either way, without further delay, they marched alongside Commander Tsurugi with their chocobos towards the Big Bridge.


	21. Faia Nishimura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Faia marched to what seems to be his last battle, he looked back on his journey on becoming an Agito cadet, Class First has been his dream since he first stepped his foot on Akademeia. Although his journey wasn't a short one, he did end up becoming a Class First cadet.

**Cae. XXI 829 R.G.**

That day marked Faia’s first time at Akademeia, he was recently enrolled by his parents. Faia always dreamed to become Agito ever since his childhood, he possesed an overwhelming interest in fire magic after watching a Legionary in action during one of his visit at the Legion camp near his home at Meroe. Faia Nishimura, born on the fifteenth day of Ignismens 819 R.G., was said to be naturally interested in fire magic due to his birth at the month of fire, the Ignismens.

“Welcome to Akademeia, trainee. I hope you will be able to hone your skills as a trainee during your time here.”

“Thank you, you’re a cadet, right? May I know your name?” Faia asked.

“But of course! My name is Ichiro Takatsugu. I am Akademeia’s general cadet Representative, pleasure to meet you!”

“Pleasure to meet you too, my name is Faia Nishimura. Actually, I am lost on what I should do here, can you give me some pointers, cadet Takatsugu?”

“Well, as you know, your semester will not start until the month of Ignismens. So, in the meantime, allow me to show you around the peristylium.”

Faia was excited by his offer, it was just his first day and he was lucky to be crossing paths with Takatsugu, who seemed to be nice to him. For more than an hour, Takatsugu showed him the way around, Faia was truly fascinated by the sight of Akademeia, he couldn’t be more grateful to be born as a Rubran.

During their walk at the main hall, they discussed which class sparked the most interest.

“I want to be, a Class First cadet! Just like you!” Faia replied, in excitement.

“Class First, you say? Well, in our history… no one has managed to be assigned to Class First immediately upon their graduation from trainee status, so—,”

Faia looked curious. “So you’re not instantly assigned to Class First too?”

“Indeed. I was initially assigned to Class Fifth, and then a year later I was transferred to Class Third. That’s where the fun begins.”

Faia’s curiosity was ignited even further. “Class Third? What’s so special about them?”

“Well, for starters… most Class First cadets were former Class Third cadets. For your info, Class Third cadets are known for their unmatched proficiency in black magic.”

Aside from their black magic proficiency, Class Third was known to be the friendliest class of all. For those who were talented enough to be at Class First, but didn’t have the intention to be there, they tend to rather stay at Class Third instead than being transferred to Class First.

“So, did you regret being in Class First?”

Takatsugu shook his head. “No. Everyone have their different goals in life, as for me, I wanted to be the best of the best. I don’t really care about not having much friend, so being in Class First was not a regret for me.

“Well, but don’t make me change your mind. Just because you’re in Class First, doesn’t mean that you’ll be having less friends than in Class Third.”

Faia nodded in approval. “I see. Your words, they’re so encouraging, Cadet Takatsugu.”

Unshaken with Takatsugu’s temptation to choose other classes, Faia stood his ground to pursue his dream as a Class First cadet. Despite in the end failing to do so, Faia did end up being a Class First cadet after spending a year in Class Third, leaving the class as an honor student.


	22. The First Battle of the Big Bridge III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Class First finally reached the main camp. The sight of the battlefield terrified them, even though they were used to the battlefield, this time, everything seems to be... different.

**Pyr. VI 837 R.G.**

Kurasame and Class First finally reached the Legion main camp not far away from the Big Bridge, from the overlook of the camp, everyone could see how large the Empire’s army was, even though it was pitch black, not to mention that the moon was covered by the thick clouds after the rain earlier that day. They walked around the camp and they can see the mixed feelings between the Legionaries, the raw recruits were trembling with fear after seeing the numbers of their adversary. Even the experienced troops feared the large Imperial army, only the Evocati that seemed to be calm, while the others were discussing on how they can survive the battle, the Evocatus were just sitting in their tents, playing cards, drinking, and whatnot.

At Tsurugi’s tent, he was joined by Kurasame and Faia. Kurasame asked him on how he would play the battle out. Tsurugi then took a map from his drawer. Scouting reports indicated that the Imperials secured a high ground to the south of the battleground, Tsurugi, as sure as daylight, suspected that this would be their flanking route. Judging by the terrain, the flanking force couldn’t be consisting of foot soldiers, as it would take hours to scale the high ground, he guessed that it must be Lieutenant Faith’s MA company that were in charge of the flanking route.

“Commander Satoshi, if I may ask, how did you know about their commanding officers?”

“Oh, it’s thanks to one of your fellow cadets that are tirelessly gathering intel behind enemy lines… this information was handed to me by an intel officer named Naghi.”

“I see. (So, they’re still gambling their lives on the line, even without us.)”

“Despite all these, we must not get ahead of ourselves as their tactics could change mid-battle. So I advise you, commanders, to be wary of that should it happen.

“One more thing, you must’ve noticed that our regular troops’ morale is relatively low, all we could rely on the field are the Evocatus for now. We need a game changer, I know you cadets are flexible task force on the field, but I think we can make you even more flexible at this battle. That’s why you’ll be joined by Izana Kunagiri.”

A hooded Legionary that was already sitting in Tsurugi’s tent finally stood up, he was no legionary, it was none other than Izana himself. Courtesy of Class Ninth’s high standards, he greeted Faia and Kurasame in high regards, his heart was filled with excitement to be finally working with Class First again. After their short greeting, Faia asked him on what was his take on this upcoming battle.

“I’ve read the preliminary reports.” Izana then pointed at the northern side of the map. “This is a path that I’ve observed earlier, it can be traversed with chocobo with great ease. But that’s not the best part.”

“Smart thinking, Cadet Kunagiri.” Kurasame said, realizing something in that northern part of the map. “This is a low ground and the Empire neglected this part of the field.”

“Correct, but they neglected it for a good reason.”

“I know this place.” Faia realized. “This is the fabled lair of The King Behemoth. There were rumors that those who traverse there never returned. You really want us to sneak through that passage?”

“Yes. You’re Class First cadets, don’t tell me you guys are afraid of behemoths?” Izana joked, but half serious.

“Of course not. We’re in. When do we take off?”

“When you’re ready. We’ll have to be in position before the battle started.”

Izana then glanced towards Tsurugi, the latter already knew what he wanted. “Granted, be careful, cadets. May the Crystal guide you.”

Faia relayed their marching orders to his classmates. Prior to their march, Kurasame gave them a simple advice, to “not die”. Marching under the cover of the night, the cadets started to feel uncomfortable as it was getting further lower from the ground. There was something wrong with this place, if this was a behemoth lair, there should be dozens of them and yet there was none to be seen so far. Izana was somehow the calmest of them all, he must’ve known something that the Class First cadets didn’t know. Faia knew something was wrong, he stopped their march in front of a small lake, the water was not… normal.

“What’s the matter? Did you finally figure it out?” Izana asked.

“This is no behemoth lair! This is… Imperial dumping grounds!”

“You’re half right. Well you see, I was about to stop you guys further ahead, but it seems your leader finally figured it out.

“Let’s stop here and open the pouch on your chocobos. In there, there will be something called gas mask, courtesy of the guys from Eleventh. I need you guys to wear that. The air is toxic up ahead, you can’t see it on nighttime, but on daylight… you’ll get what I mean.”

“So, what does this thing do?” Ayane asked.

“Simple, it filters the air to be breathable by a human being. Trust me, the air there is worse than a malboro’s bad breath.”

Izana then explained on the way that before their removal from Code Crimson, they actually had one mission waiting in line. It was to infiltrate this exact place, to confirm the fairy tale of a behemoth king’s lair. Everybody asked why Section Four bothered to do so, Izana told them there was no such fairy tale ever told in Concordia nor Lorica, that fairy tale came straight from Milites, it was nothing more than a lie to keep Rubrum out from those lands as it was still in their territory.

“I have an underclassman by the name of Naghi Minatsuchi. His team was tasked with infiltrating these lands on your stead. He came up with pretty much everything. Since we’re friends, I’ll tell you about it.”

Milites turned out to possess a secret military base on that mountain range, after a month of intelligence gathering, the intelligence officers found the exact location of the base. Unfortunately, due to Class First no longer involved in Code Crimson, the intelligence division left the case to be solved later, deeming it was too dangerous to get closer to the base.

“Don’t worry, they can’t detect our presence. I calculated it thoroughly and concluded that this valley hides our presence. I tried this route several times already.”

Yoji sighed a breath of relief. “That’s reassuring, I was worried for a bit there.”

“How much further, Izana?” Haruka asked.

Izana inspected his surroundings, and answered, “Not so far now, we’ll scale this mountain to our left. I need to remind you that their secret base is on the opposite mountain that we’re about to scale. By scaling it, we might get detected, so we need to hurry.”

After 5 hour of non-stop marching, they eventually reached the peak of the mountain. Now comes the hard part where they had to ride their chocobo downhill. Izana was the fastest one to reach the foothills, so fast that he waited for half an hour until all of the Class First cadets were accounted for. They managed to get into their positions without much trouble, it also seemed the secret base didn’t detect them either.

Izana then called Faia. “So, what now? I’ve done my task, now it’s all up to you.”

“The COMM’s not working, this is not good. We don’t even know whether the battle is already started or not. We could’ve seen it from the top, but the morning fog blocks our entire view of the battlefield.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Haruka shouted, “let’s march upon the battlefield!”

“Hold on. Let’s discuss the possibilities here…” Tomu interrupted.

Everyone’s in confusion, the morning fog still limited their view on the battlefield, and strangely enough, their COMM’s were totally cut off. The battle could already be started, if that was the case they had to hurry, but then again, if the battle hadn’t started yet, they would be marching onto an empty battlefield. Faia took the path in between, to shorten their gap towards the battlefield and get a closer look.


	23. The First Battle of the Big Bridge IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the situation still in blur, Faia decided to close the gap between him and the battlefield. Just as he finally caught a sight of the battle, it is not looking good.

**Pyr. VI 837 R.G.**

Soon after they closed their gap with the battlefield, they could finally hear what was going on. The battle was already started and it looked bad for the Dominion as they were being pushed back towards their camp. They seemed to be not fighting at all, this was already wrong in every direction. Faia took the decision to launch a full scale assault towards the enemy main camp to confuse the enemies, just like what they did on their last large scale battle. But then, something happened, as they dismounted from their chocobos, they suddenly felt their magic was weak.

“It couldn’t be,” Tomu said, “look at that energy wave at their base… It must be a Crystal Jammer!”

“So… the Crystal Jammer, they’re in play this time.” Faia sighed.

“What do we do then?!” Izana shouted.

“Our capes enabled us to withstand the effects of the jammer partly. I say we proceed with the plan!” Haruka said.

“Wait!” Faia shouted, “the main camp is just too far away from the battlefield. Even if we managed to disable the jammer, we couldn’t make it in time to reinforce the Legion!”

Yoji frowned. “So what’s your plan now?”

Examining the battlefield for a moment, Faia finally came up with a new and better plan. Splitting the team in two, Faia directed the second team to prepare a charge in the rear while he, Tomu, and Ayane assaulted the main camp. The plan was that the second team had to charge immediately as soon as they feel their magic was fully restored.

“I like that idea. But are you sure three of you will be enough to assault the camp?”

“The lesser the number, the lesser chance we will be spotted. Besides, we already used this tactic before, they surely anticipated that if we used the same thing.”

“Very well then,” Izana said, agreeing on his plan. “But we’ll need to get there fast. We should take my chocobos with us.”

“Wait, ‘with us’?! You can’t be serious! You’re supposed to be our transport only!”

“No, cadet Kurayami. The game plan has changed, please allow me to do this.” Izana looked towards Faia. “Lend me your cadets, cadet Nishimura.”

Faia thought for a second. Seeing the gravity of the situation, he had no choice but to send him to the field, but then again, Faia would held responsibility on whatever would happen to Izana, he was not part of Class First, would he be able to handle the pressure of the battlefield? But Either way, Izana’s mind was made up, he wouldn’t take no as an answer whatsoever.

With haste, Izana and the rest of Class First disappeared into horizon as they readied their ambush behind the rearguard of Militesi army. At the same time, Faia and his colleagues rode as close as possible into the main camp. For the first time, they would serve their purpose as anti-Crystal Jammer, their hearts filled with determination as they were getting closer to the base.

As they approached the base, something was wrong, multiple gunshots could be heard from inside the camp. Because of this, Faia and his team managed to infiltrate the camp without too much hassle. Inside, they could see several dead Militesi soldiers on the ground. Tomu kneeled beside one of them, inspecting his wound.

“This is undoubtedly a gunshot wound.”

“Gunshot wound? Could it be that he’s here?”

Tomu sighed. “Yup, I’m certain.”

Beside the dead body, there was a note addressed for Faia. It said, “ _Take this man’s radio and tune it to channel 148.7_ ”

“Tomu, I don’t know how to use this. I need your expertise.”

Tomu then picked up the radio, he tuned it exactly as the note said. He then hailed the one on the other side of the radio, unsurprisingly, it was the one they expected.

“(On radio) Took you long enough.”

“Sergeant Morse. How did you know we will be here?”

It turned out that Morse had been watching their move at the mountains, seeing them split up at the foothills, he guessed that they were heading towards the main camp to sabotage the Crystal Jammer, to his relief, he guessed right. He informed that the base was prepared for an ambush and that the cadets would get themselves killed by trying to go near the base. Knowing the Imperial all his life, Morse masqueraded as one of the Imperials and got himself in the base rather easily.

Inside, he made it as if it was the cadets that were infiltrating the base by using several hand grenades, causing explosions that appeared to be caused by a magic. While Morse was busy doing his diversion, Charon’s 2nd in command, Captain Qun’mi who was at the camp frantically tried to inform that their base was under attack by the Dominion cadets.

“(Radio) What?! How did they know how to get into that base? We’ve prepared for it!”

“We have no idea! I’ve lost contact with several units already, thankfully they were probably aiming for the Central Command, not the Crystal Jammer.”

“(Radio) Wait, if that’s the case, how did they still could use magic?! Are you even sure that those were Dominion cadets?”

“I am certain! Who else could it be?! I’m currently deploying the elite rearguards to hold the Central Command.”

“(Radio) Very well. Keep them at bay, we’re still holding them the advantage here at the Big Bridge.”

Morse got exactly what he wanted as Qun’mi concentrated the whole army towards the Central Command. As a result, The Crystal Jammer was completely neglected by the guards, leaving it vulnerable for the cadets to sabotage. Seeing the army concentrated elsewhere, Morse hurriedly informed them the exact position of the Crystal Jammer. Tomu worryingly asked if he was fine holding the army on his own.

“(Radio) If I have to die, promise me this will be our final battle. See to it that Milites is razed to its foundation after this battle.”

“Very well. May your Crystal guide you, Sergeant Morse. And… thank you.”

Behind the radio, he was smiling. He knew the risks. His chances were low to assault the Central Command by himself. But if the cadets were to succeed, he had to hold them as much as he can, trying to not reveal his true identity to the enemies at the same time using his unique range of weaponries. Although, it would be only a matter of time until Captain Qun’mi realized that they were attacked by one of their own and the “actual” cadets were _indeed_ aiming at their Crystal Jammer.

Swiftly, Faia and his colleagues attempted to disable the Crystal Jammer, but were unable to do so, they actually came ill-prepared, they had no idea what to do. They could’ve destroyed it like before, but that was a different case where the jammer was not even turned on. There was one thing they could do, but it was extremely risky.

Faia glanced towards his teammates. “We have no choice. Tomu, you’re the expert at thunder magic. Use that to overload the jammer.”

“Got it, but I couldn’t protect us in the time being.” Tomu was right, holding a supporting role, he couldn’t protect them while he worked on the jammer, they had to come up with something if they wanted to leave the place alive.

“I have an idea, if that thing unsafely explodes, I’ll conjure a makeshift wall made of ice to protect us all.”

“Risky. But what choice do we have? Surely firewall is out of question.” Faia smirked.

Everything was ready, Tomu conjured his largest thunder magic he hoped he never have to use in the past, the “Electon”, a stronger version of “Thundaga”. Seeing the device’s size, he had no means of using weaker spells towards the jammer, he had to go all out. At the moment the thunder magic touched the jammer, it caused a chain reaction, overloading the machines nearby. Almost instantly, explosions occurred throughout the camp, finally catching Qun’mi’s attention. She finally grasped the situation, some moments later, she started receiving reports from the battlefield that the Legion started to push them back. Their magic… was restored.

“What’s going on?!” Qun’mi shouted through the radio.

Charon responded, “It’s the cadets! Our rearguard was attacked. If they fall, we will be encircled!”

“We lost contact with Faith. The Dominion seemed to be anticipating our flanking move!” Qator reported.

“I’m still breathing. We were met with heavy resistance by their elite veterans.” Faith finally responded. “What do we do now?!”

“What the hell is wrong with the Crystal Jammer?! Reboot it back up, Qun’mi!”

“Negative, Master Sergeant! Our Crystal Jammer! It’s been destroyed!”

“Damn it! How did they—”

“We were distracted! There were more of them than I initially expected. They were indeed aiming for the Crystal Jammer.

“Wait… Master Sergeant. I’m receiving reports from outside that… we were attacked by Sergeant Morse. He’s working with the enemy!”

“Now?!” Charon shouted. “Very well, we have no choice then. Qun’mi, initiate code Broken Arrow. Inform the ones in charge of the missiles to proceed.”

In desperation, Charon decided to resort on their final trump card, to rain down fire in their own position in hopes of obliterating Rubrum’s forces in the process. Qun’mi ordered her troops to protect the missile turrets in case Morse noticed it. Waves of soldiers were thrown towards him as Qun’mi aimed the missiles towards the battleground, a siren was ringing as the missiles started to fill the sky.

Finally, Morse noticed the missiles that were just fired upon. Strangely, it wasn’t directed towards them, he finally realized that it was directed towards the battlefield. Morse hurriedly informed the cadets, still stuck in their makeshift ice wall created by Ayane.

“What?! They did what?!”

“(Radio) I can confirm it. You better inform your Legions. I’ll try to stop it in the meantime.”

Faia frantically turned his COMM online. “Attention! If anyone can hear this, there’s a rain of missiles heading straight towards your position! Use anything for cover! Wall, protect, anything!”

“Alright, it’s getting heavy in here, let’s get out of here and assist the main army!”

“What about Morse? Are we just going to leave him here?” Ayane shouted.

Faia realized it. “Damn it! What do we do?”

“(Radio) I hear you, cadets. Just leave me, I’ll be fine. Go, warriors of Rubrum. Before I die, please give my regards to your CO.”

Unfortunately, Faia actually tuned his channel towards the Central Command instead of the field commanders earlier, delaying the crucial information. Regardless, Miura frantically informed the army of the imminent missile fire directed towards them. The Legion’s rearguard managed to retreat to safe distance and on the southern part of the field, The Evocatus managed to regain order and disengaged Faith’s regiment and prioritized their cover. Lastly, the main army did get the message, but was unable to disengage as it was chaotic at where they stood.

Ultimately, the missiles reached the ground, obliterating anything in its path indiscriminately, whether that be the Legion or the Empire, the missiles spared no one. Those who survived was stoned at the sight of destruction right in front of their eyes. The Legion started to lose their morale as they retreated back towards their main camp once again, this was a terrible idea as the missiles still rained on their position, seemingly unstoppable.

For minutes that seemed forever, both sides weathered the inferno, even though it still didn’t help much, it was better than losing all of their personnel. Just as both sides had enough, the missiles’ wrath abruptly stopped. Seeing the clear sky, both sides surged out of their covers and charged towards each other once again. The horrors of screaming, bleeding, dying for every inch of ground gained or lost occurred all over the field. Due to the overwhelming numbers, Milites’ main army started to regain their advantage. Little did the Imperials know, their rearguard and Faith’s regiment were still dangerously held at bay by the Evocati and Class First respectively.

At the Empire’s rearguard, Class First were still fighting at the Empire’s rearguard, this part of the field was somehow spared by the missiles’ wrath, to their favor. Class First cadets appeared to be winning so far, but what good would it be for them? They were stranded not in the middle of the battle, but behind the enemy lines, coverless with literally no support and reinforcements, not to mention they were starting to tire. No matter how strong they were, they finally suffered their first blood as their oldest classmate, Yoji, took a heavy hit and fell to the ground face first, nobody could tell whether he’s alive or not.

One by one, they fall in the hands of Empire’s hot lead and steel until it was Izana, Ran, Shinji, Haruka, Yui, and Akira that were apparently still left standing, only having several rubbles to cover their wounded classmates. With no strength left, the Class First cadets were unable to execute their warp hit-and-run maneuver, if they tried, they would just have themselves vulnerable to their enemies.


	24. The First Battle of the Big Bridge V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle reached its final hour as the jammer has been disabled by Faia's team. Now, he must march quickly back to his friends' side if he wants them to return home alive.

**Pyr. VI 837 R.G.**

With the sun barely above their heads, both Class First cadets and the Empire’s rearguard troopers began to simultaneously tire, with the Cadets desperately trying to get out of their position while the Empire struggled to kill them at the same time, only to have their men cut down by the strong Class First cadets if they got too close. Suddenly, a glimmer of hope started to shine upon the cadets as a massive firewall enveloped the advancing soldiers, followed by a sustained thunderstruck that allowed the pinned down Class First cadets to catch their breaths. Unaware that there were only three of them, the Empire retreated towards the direction of their main army who were still holding the advantage against the Legion, intending to regroup with them.

With the Empire finally let them off the hook, Tomu hastily tended to their wounded cadets, thankfully, everyone was still alive and well, at most they were only combat ineffective. The wounded cadets refused to receive a cure, telling Tomu it would take too long. Instead, they cauterized their wound by applying fire and ice magic towards their wound, saving many precious time for them to regroup instead. With all of them regrouped, Faia turned his COMM, calling the Central Command.

“Faia! Thank goodness you’re still alive. What do you need?”

“Representative, requesting permission to use the Vermillion Bird eidolon.”

Miura was shocked. “I forbid! If you’re not on full strength, it would kill you to summon it! I cannot allow that!”

“Damn it, Miura…! Sorry, I mean… Representative. The Legion is in trouble and this is what we have left! All 16 of us are currently standing by for the summoning.”

“Very well.” She sighed. “Permission granted.”

“Thank you, Representative. It’s been a pleasure knowing—,”

“—Faia, wait. I’ve read your letter.”

Faia was shocked, but he smiled. “I knew you would and I’m glad that you did.”

Faia then turned his COMM off and began the ritual of the Vermillion Bird summoning alongside all of his 15 classmates. Before he did, he sent Izana and his chocobos away to safety, Faia knew he didn’t possess enough strength to contribute in the summoning.

“If you still want to make a mark in this battle, show me that chocobo charge of yours with the Legionaries as soon as the Vermillion Bird touched the ground.”

“With pleasure. We’ll all come back alive from this, Cadet Nishimura, I’m sure of it. See you back at the camp.”

“I will. Now go with haste as if it’s the last thing you’ll ever do!”

With the Legion main camp still under siege, Izana managed to sneak past the enemy and headed inside the camp. Inside, Kurasame and Tsurugi were busy issuing orders, trying to reinforce every vulnerable part of their camp just as those parts started to crumble. Hurriedly, Izana reported that the Vermillion Bird’s arrival was imminent that they needed to cast a wall to protect them for its onslaught. Without further delay, Kurasame issued the order to conjure the dome wall for the Legionaries holding the line. In order for the protection to be effective, he added that it must be conjured at the exact time the Vermillion Bird appeared.

Minutes later, the sky turned dark, the clouds rolled over, blocking the sun from view. At the same time, the Vermillion Bird descended from the sky, immediately wreaking havoc towards the Empire’s line, catching Charon and Qator in the heat of it. Like the missiles the Empire launched earlier, the Vermillion Bird spared no one, burning everything and everyone in its path. Lacking the manpower to contribute some strengths, the Legion failed to summon their planned wall. With the Vermillion Bird approaching dangerously near the camp, a figure emerged to the occasion, leaving his command of his troops to Tsurugi, this man decided to step up at the center of the camp and with all his might, he conjured a massive ice wall surrounding the camp. The ice was so cold and solid that even the Vermillion Bird’s inferno was unable to melt it down.

From the southern part of the field, the Evocati was still fighting Faith’s regiment. It was a stalemate since the beginning, but after seeing the Vermillion Bird wreaking the Empire’s main army, the Evocati was reinvigorated and as a result, they pushed Faith’s troops really hard, finally gaining several inches of ground. With no chance of victory in sight, Faith ordered his regiment a full-on retreat towards the high ground. The Evocati Captain knew better to not pursue them, thus he turned back and charged towards the vulnerable main army. The final hour of the battle approached as the sun was setting as the Vermillion Bird disappeared into the heavens once again.

The Empire had no means of retreating as they found themselves surrounded by the Legion main army plus the advancing Evocati and Class First. Charon ordered them a “fight to the end” order and in one quick motion, they formed a circle formation, their shields, rifles, pikes, all extended to meet the enemy. Unfortunately, it was all for nothing, as soon as the Evocati and Class First made their contact, everybody knew it was all over. Soon after, Izana charged out of the camp with his chocobo alongside several Legionaries. Despite their bloodlust, The Evocatus spared Qator and Charon, capturing them instead in their distinct Magitek Armor. Not wanting anymore blood being spilled, Qator gave the order to his men to cease fire, overriding Charon’s all-out attack order.

Just like that, the battle was over. The Legion rounded up the surviving Imperials while the others searched the battlefield for survivors. Several hours later, Akademeia cadets wearing orange capes arrived, they were hailing from Class Fourth, tasked with the recovery efforts. Tsurugi was so stressed by the fact that this battle was so bad that they needed healer cadets to aid them, it wasn’t usually like that as they usually handled it on their own. Several minutes later, more cadets arrived at the camp, this time wearing the yellow capes, called upon to aid the search and rescue efforts.

Faia and several of his colleagues also took part on the search and rescue efforts. Sadly, he already had several knowing tags belonging to Class First cadets on his hand.

Ayane kneeled at one of the dead Class First cadet. “Faia, I found another one. This belonged to our classmate by the name of Yoji Kanagawa.”

“That makes it 10.” He sighed as he picked the knowing tag. “At this rate, I’m not sure if this is a victory at all.”

Not far out, Haruka shouted towards them, “Guys, I found another one, Ran Tsukamoto.”

“11,” Tomu said, “I cannot believe it. I hope that’s the last we’ll ever find.”

At the end of the day, Faia gathered around his classmates at the camp, in there, he presented them the 11 knowing tags they found on the field, all found on dead Class First cadets. Faia read their names in front of them, _Shinji, Yui, Yoji, Asuka, Kasuki, Ran, Hiro, Ichiro, Kanna, Fuji, and Mitsuki._ These names would be forever engraved within them, even though these fallen cadets were erased from the existence. Most of them died after sacrificing the last of their strength to summon the Vermillion Bird, while the rest were presumed to be killed on the battlefield.

“I remembered that there were 16 of us,” Faia said, “and I could only remember 4 of you, so 11 of us died, here at the Big Bridge. I wonder if their sacrifice is that meaningful.”

Suddenly, Kurasame joined them. “Their deaths are not meaningless. I know you’ve been on the field for many times now. But I’m sure this is the first time you cadets suffered heavy losses.

“Either way, you’ll get used to it. That’s your burden as Class First cadets. We all lost someone, whether that someone is your close friend or a mere acquaintance, we have to move forward. You’ll have to endure this as long as you are assigned at Class First.”

The cadets stared blankly at the ground.

“I don’t expect an answer from you, don’t worry. Now, get some rest, we’ll head back to Akademeia later on after we make a stop at Mi-Go.” As Kurasame started to leave, he stopped in his tracks. “Before you get some rest, go and see Commander Tsurugi, he’s expecting you all.”

The cadets still remained silent, they were like an empty husk, this battle truly reduced them down into nothing. When they marched, all they could feel was eagerness, but now… they looked as if they died in that battle.

As Kurasame left, the remaining Class First cadets broke down in tears. Miura was right all along, no matter how strong they were, it didn’t change the fact that they were simply _humans with heart_.

Still in agony, Faia remembered something. “Wait, I thought that we have something to say for Mr. Kurasame?”

Ayane also felt the same thing. “I know, right? I just can’t seem to place it. What was it?”

“There’s no point. Whatever it was, they were probably our fallen friends’ last words.”

They seemed to be forgetting something, Faia’s memory was just too hazy that the only part he remembered was that someone wanted to give _his?_ regards for Kurasame. Was it one of their friends? Or was it someone else? There was no point in trying to remember as that person must’ve died in the battle.


	25. Morse's Last Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rubrum couldn't win the battle if not for a certain someone, this person single-handedly disarmed Milites' HQ, allowing the Legion to gain an upper hand in the battle.

**Pyr. VI 837 R.G.**

“Well, last mag. Don’t disappoint me, Lizzie,” Morse said. Down to his last ammo, he inserted one last magazine of his custom made suppressed sniper rifle he designed during his time as Militesi soldier, he can’t even remember why he named his rifle “Lizzie”, could it be his lover? His mother? His sister? He can’t remember it. Masterfully, he took down every soldier Qun’mi thrown at him, his ultimate goal was to stop the missiles, after all, he needed to make sure every bullet counts. He need not to worry running out of bullets, as he brought every of his arsenal on this fateful battle.

Just as he fired the last round of Lizzie, he dropped it to the ground, removing a slight weight he carried. As a soldier, he needed full mobility when it comes to combat, without his sniper rifle to burden him, he readied his assault rifle, he named this rifle as “Semaphorus”. This rifle was the only thing he remembered why he named it as such, it was named after his l’Cie father. Clip after clip, he teared down every Militesi soldiers, but at the same time, a bullet managed to hit him in his prosthetic arm, not that it mattered as he didn’t feel it at all.

“Wrong place, my friend. You should’ve gone for the head.” he said, laughing.

As he got closer towards the missiles, the resistance was just getting heavier as he faced even more experienced soldiers.

“No matter. I am more experienced than you pathetic fools!” he shouted.

They proved to be no match for him as he single-handedly dispatched pretty much everyone. Those who survived his onslaught would soon wish that they died instead. As Morse approached one of the surviving Imperial, he immediately teared him limb to limb, giving the survivor enough time to suffer. He’d done the same to the others who survived.

“I pity you. You should’ve died than to face it like this.”

As he was finished with the experienced troopers, he finally ran out of bullets for the Semaphorus rifle. Like before, he threw it beside him and unsheathed his last weapon, a long twin katana with his name crudely carved in the silver shining blade end.

“Alright. Now for the finale, it’s time for ‘Morse’ blade to steal the show!”

Heroically, he charged towards the remaining soldiers in the camp, giving no mercy whatsoever, for he had none anyway during his life. All its left was Qun’mi, who was controlling the missiles at the Central Command.

“Well hello there, pretty. Long time no see!”

Qunmi was enraged. “Morse! Why’d you do this?! Victory is within our grasp until you decided to ruin it all!”

“But of course! I wanted to see you all in ruins, after everything you did to the people.”

Letting go of the missile panel, Qun’mi unsheathed her electro-whip. “It seems I have no choice but to put you down, Morse.”

Morse laughed. “Yes! Finally, I will get to dance with you!”

Qun’mi knew Morse’s weakness was his prosthetic arm, thanks to Kurasame cutting down his original arm years ago. A prosthetic arm was undoubtedly a dangerous weapon while used correctly, however, a prosthetic arm was still a machine, and thus could turn against its own user. Qun’mi’s weapon of choice, the electro-whip, was a perfect choice to fight him.

However, Morse also knew that Qun’mi would be aiming for his arm, and thus, he did something Qun’mi did not expect at all.

“I know you’ll be aiming for this. I don’t need two arms to kill you.”

With courage, Morse disengaged his prosthetic arm, leaving only his left arm to hold his twin katana. Amazingly, he wielded one of his katana… on his mouth.

“So be it,” Qun’mi said, “let’s have a fair ‘dance’ as you said.”

As expected, Qun’mi had no chance against the “Silver Savage” as he endured pretty much everything Qun’mi threw at him. Leaving herself vulnerable, Morse stabbed her in the stomach with his left hand katana, followed by a slash to her left foot with his mouth katana.

Seemingly dying, Qun’mi said, “Morse! Please… stop, you don’t have to do this! Of all people, why I have to die on the hands of someone I admired, adored, liked throughout my life?”

“What?” Morse’s bloodlust was suddenly stopped. “Y-you admired me?”

“Of course! You were a hero, Morse. A lot of the youths in our nation admired you, they wanted to be… like you. But seeing you like this…”

Morse was touched by her words, he never realized it throughout his life. “Me? A hero… to the people?” Suddenly he shouted, “LIES! THERE WERE NO SUCH THING!”

“Why would I lie to you? What’s in it for me? Tell me… Morse, hero of the Empire.”

Morse was stone silent, slowly, he felt like his left hand begged him to let go of his katana. Suddenly, he felt the urge to save Qun’mi, but her wound was just too severe… she only had several minutes to live. Not wanting to be tormented by another of his pointless murder, he turned his back from Qun’mi and started to leave.

Just as Morse nearly reached the door, it exploded right in front of his eyes. And then, a figure that he dreaded emerged from the rubbles.

“D-dad?!”

“Morse… traitor of the Empire. You’ve got some nerve, working with the enemy.”

Morse smirked. “But of course. They’re more human than you all imperial scums!”

“Your flattery will not spare your life. Now, prepare to die.”

“Funny you should say that, dad. For you should be the one preparing to die.”

Ignoring the fact that Semaphorus was his father, Morse reattached his prosthetic arm, grabbing Qun’mi’s electro-whip, he charged with all his might towards him. Seemingly underestimated him, Semaphorus was stabbed in his joints, pleasing Morse very much.

“If the ‘Ice Reaper’ can defeat you, then so can I. I’ll finish what he couldn’t!”

Enraged, Semaphorus combined his ten swords into one, creating a massive a greatsword. Brandishing his l’Cie mark, his greatsword started to emit electrical current, the same as Qun’mi’s whip. He managed to land several hits towards Morse, however, it didn’t do much, Morse was just too filled with anger, adrenaline, and the will to kill him.

Filled with rage, vengeance, and willpower, Morse threw his katana towards Semaphorus’s greatsword, disarming him. Morse was a genius, he wielded three weapons, while Semaphorus only had one after he combined it, with no option to reclaim his weapon without being attacked by Morse, Semaphorus had to endure Morse’s onslaught, blood after blood was dropped due to his onslaught. Like a flash, Morse wrapped Qun’mi’s whip around Semaphorus’s neck, and simultaneously, he surged towards the vulnerable general with his katana and stabbed it right through his heart.

“Humanity… will always win. You savages will never rule Orience,” Morse whispered.

Semaphorus smiled. “But you will not live to see it coming.” In a flash, after secretly grabbing Morse’s katana below his feet, he thrusted the katana straight towards his heart as well. Blood poured out of Morse’s mouth, with his adrenaline rush gone, he finally realized that this would be his end.

Morse smirked. “This will be the end of Axelsen bloodline, then.” With his free hand, Morse opened Semaphorus’s clenched fist. “Consider it… a parting gift, dad.”

Morse fell to the ground. His rebellion was finally put to a close as he drew his last breath. Sergeant Morse Axelsen, the traitor of the Empire, the Silver Savage, was no more.

Glancing at the dead traitor he didn’t recognize anymore, Semaphorus opened his palm to see what this dead man gave him. It turned out that Morse’s parting gift… was a bomb, he only had 10 seconds left until it exploded. Semaphorus himself was heavily injured, despite being a l’Cie, he knew his time was almost up as his vision started to blur.

“(Qun’mi! She’s still alive… I can remember her.) One has to leave this place alive… and it’s you Qun’mi. You will inherit my Focus, and bring glory to the Empire.”

Thinking quickly, Semaphorus teleported Qun’mi out of harm outside the HQ, using all of his strength that was left in him. Seconds later, the bomb obliterated the HQ, turning it onto a pile of rubbles, that was some “parting gift” that Morse gave him.

Not long after the smoke cleared, the remnants of Lieutenant Faith’s regiment arrived at the camp, looking for survivors. Not having much time until the Dominion reached the camp, Faith ordered his men to leave the camp swiftly after gathering everything that could be salvaged, however, just as he mounted his Blackburn, his 2nd in command halted him.

“Lieutenant, we found General Semaphorus near the HQ, he has… sublimated.”

“What?! What the hell was he doing here?!” he said in shock.

“I don’t know, Lieutenant. But, we found lady Qun’mi, alive and well.”

Faith frowned. “Qun’mi? Where is she now?”

And then, Qun’mi appeared in front of him, she looked fine. She was undoubtedly mortally wounded before, but now, she appeared in front of Faith, unscathed.

“Captain Qun’mi! What happened?”

“The general… he sacrificed himself to save me. I don’t know what for, but I remembered that I was… dying.”

“I see. We don’t have much time, Captain. Can you walk? If you can’t, take my MA and go. I’ll hitch a ride with one of the other MA’s.”

Qun’mi calmly replied, “No. It won’t be necessary. I can do more than walk.”

Faith was confused.

Qun’mi then brandished a yellow l’Cie brand. “I am… a White Tiger l’Cie. I inherited General Semaphorus’s Focus.”


	26. The Price We Paid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remnants of Class First were reduced into nothing as they headed back towards their camp. Will they be able to continue their duties as soldiers? Even though they lost so much?

**Pyr. VII 837 R.G.**

After washing their tears away, the remnants of Class First headed towards Tsurugi’s camp. Inside, Izana was also there, his face was covered with bandages, he revealed that he fell off from his chocobo amidst the battle and took a heavy hit to his face, he was lucky to escape with his life though. Tsurugi motioned them to take a seat, he asked them how they were doing at first until he moved on to what his purpose was summoning them at this late. Izana then handed each of them a letter.

“What’s this?” Akira asked.

Tsurugi then presented them a medal, it was his medal that he received during his time as a Class First cadet for his distinguished service for the Legion. Those letters were recommendations for the remnants of the Class First cadets to receive the exact same honor.

Tsurugi said, “I believe all of you fully deserved it.”

“Commander, but we… failed to save our comrades.”

“Say no more, Cadet Nishimura. We won this battle thanks to your fearless efforts on disabling the Crystal Jammer and the summoning of the Vermillion Bird. Keep this up and you might be able to obtain The Golden Cape.”

They were shocked by the mention of “Golden Cape”. The Golden Cape was a highest achievement an Akademeia cadet could dream for. Given the situation, it was only possible for Class First cadets to receive it as they served directly in the military. In order to receive a Golden Cape, a cadet have to receive 3 medals of honor during their time as cadet, it was hard enough for them to receive one, let alone three medals.

He continued, “But I think it will be hard for you, though.” he laughed. “I was informed earlier by the Cadetmaster that Class First will be excluded from military affairs until further notice.”

“Commander?! But… why?”

“You’ve lost so much today, that I cannot deny. Akademeia can’t afford to lose more Class First cadets for now, that’s all I can say for you. Go back to your studies, and enjoy your lives without having to worry about dying every time.”

Of course they couldn’t resist it, the order came from the Cadetmaster herself. For the second time, Class First cadets were relieved from their combat duties. This time, they were relieved from their one true purpose of becoming a Class First cadet, “to be sent on the front lines and putting their lives on the line for the Dominion”. Judging by the severity of the battle, they would probably spend the rest of their cadet lives as ordinary students and not the tools of war anymore. Upon leaving Tsurugi’s tent, they headed to their respective tents to get some rest for their later ride towards Mi-Go.

At the end of the day, the casualty report finally arrived. The Empire lost 28.000 soldiers of the 30.000 that marched, mostly from Charon’s force. For the Legion, they lost 16.000 soldiers of the 25.000 that marched, 1.000 of them came from the 5.000 strong Evocatus plus the 11 Class First cadets, most of the casualties came from Tsurugi’s raw recruits as they took the brunt of the initial assault. Either way, both sides suffered massive casualties. Usually, when a battle took these many casualties, it would lead into a short-term ceasefire or a full-on peace agreement, albeit very unlikely, especially when it comes between Rubrum and Milites.

Few hours later, dawn arrived and Kurasame woke up from his short sleep. Outside, his cadets were ready to leave on his go. He gave a nod towards them and mounted his chocobo, Izana was with them, he would accompany them as they were heading towards the same destination, Akademeia. They reached Mi-Go by 0900 hours, like before, they were greeted by the town representative and immediately directed towards the same inn they were in before, only this time, they wouldn’t need as many rooms as before, sadly. Also like before, Kurasame gave his cadets several gils for them to spend on food, they must be hungry after that full-blown battle yesterday. By noon, they would continue their journey back towards Akademeia.

After cleaning himself up, Kurasame headed towards the Mayor’s office, deep inside, this was the real reason why Kurasame wanted to stop by Mi-Go, he wanted to see Aoi. As it was still morning, Aoi was at her garden, tending to her flowers, Kurasame watched from her terrace as she finally noticed him coming, she stopped tending her flowers and immediately walked towards Kurasame.

“Mr. Susaya. Back from a battle, I presume?”

“Certainly. Actually, I was told to return to Akademeia at once, but I wanted to see you before I do so.”

Aoi was surprised. “Really? Is something the matter?”

“I was hoping we could talk somewhere nice.”

“Is that so? In that case,” glancing around, she pointed a large beautiful looking tree on her garden. “Let’s sit over by that tree over there.”

As they sit below the tree, the calm breeze of the morning wind joined their conversation. The atmosphere, it was as if they were in a romantic encounter.

“Say, Aoi…” –Kurasame cleared his throat— “when I’m in battle yesterday, we were nearly obliterated by the Imperials. I was starting to lose hope, and then...”

Seeing Kurasame went silent all of the sudden, she asked, “Kurasame? What is it?”

“I was so sure that I was gonna die. And then, somehow… I saw your face flashed through my mind.”

Aoi started to blush. “R-really? And then, what happened?”

Kurasame also started to blush. “When I think about you, I just think that ‘I cannot die here just yet’. Then, the Vermillion Bird appeared from the sky, saving us all from certain death. Lastly, by my own hands, I conjured a massive ice wall, protecting everyone from the Vermillion Bird’s inferno.”

“A massive ice wall? But that requires a great strength to summon!” Aoi amazed.

Kurasame then held Aoi’s hand. “That strength… I have a feeling that it comes from someone dear to me.”

Aoi blushed even further. “R-really? For real? Tell me more…”

Kurasame then told her the remainder of the story where he gave the remaining soldiers a speech where they ensured that they would not die, because each of them had someone to return to after the battle, even for Kurasame himself.

“Someone to return to? Your friends…” she said, still blushing.

“Yes. But above all, you’re the one I’m truly looking forward to return to, Aoi.”

“Kurasame?”

“Yes?”

Aoi held Kurasame’s hand firmly. “Do you—”

Kurasame opened his mask, revealing his smile. “Yes. I still love you, Aoi Tomoshibi.”

They then stared at each other silently, unsure of what to say next. With his eyes locked towards her, he made his move by fixing Aoi’s hair after the wind blew her hair, closing her face. Slowly, his face leaned towards her face, at the same time, she also started leaning towards his face. The wind, ever so relaxing touched their skins gently as their lips touched. Their flame, was finally rekindled and both of them were very happy.

Suddenly, Haruka and Ayane arrived at the garden terrace, they were thoroughly shocked by the view.

“Whoops… we shouldn’t be here,” Ayane whispered.

“Agreed. Let’s back down.”

Haruka made a grave mistake by knocking down a table as she slowly backed down, Kurasame and Aoi heard it from afar and finally noticed Haruka and Ayane standing there, watching them. He then called them both to join him and Aoi.

Aoi said, “You must be Kurasame’s students, what brings you here today?”

Ayane bumped Haruka’s shoulder, and Haruka answered, “Oh, it’s just that… about Mr. Kurasame, we wanted to invite him…”

“Me?” Kurasame said, “calm down, I’m not going to bite you.”

“We wanted to invite you to Mi-Go’s green tea café,” Ayane nervously said. “You can join us too, Ms. Mayor, if you wanted to.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. But I still have some paperwork to do, well you know… Mayor stuff. I think your CO may be able to join you.”

“Very well, I’ll be joining you soon. You go on ahead,” Kurasame replied.

“Y-yes, right. We’ll be waiting for you.” Haruka also said in a nervous tone.

As they were gone, Kurasame and Aoi stared at each other once again.

“So, we’re back together?” Kurasame said, smiling.

“Yes. We should see each other again soon. Akademeia would be a good place.”

“Are you allowed to go there, despite your business?”

Aoi thought for a second. “Maybe I can find some free time, for you.”

Kurasame then took his leave after hugging her, after all these years, their flames miraculously rekindled. After all, these two still loved each other even after their unfortunate separation two years ago. Back then, a month after their break up, both of them suffered relentless emptiness inside them. Kurasame knew better to prioritize his duties at that time, but this time, he finally could look into the other important things in his life, Kurasame is a human, he can’t be lonely forever, even with Kazusa and Emina as his close friends, he needed “that special someone” in his life.

Minutes later, Kurasame arrived at the café they were inviting him into. Inside, it was moderately crowded as it was noon that everyone is taking their lunch there. Upon seeing Kurasame at the front door, Tomu waved his hand, managing to grab his attention, he then joined at their table after ordering his share of green tea.

“Where’s cadet Kunagiri?” Kurasame asked.

“He left early, he said that he was summoned by his CO back at S4.”

“I see.”

Ayane reluctantly said, “Mr. Kurasame, about earlier… we don’t mean to—,”

Kurasame interrupted. “Don’t say anything. I’m a human and I have a heart, just like you.”

“Do you mind if we discuss this, commander?”

“Not at all, Cadet Kurayami. What do you want to know?”

They then asked Kurasame’s history with Aoi. He was reluctant at first, but since he trusted his cadets with his life, he told them the story of the young Kurasame falling in love with Aoi during one of his campaigns where he met her. At one point of his story, he told them that during his time as Four Champions of Rubrum “ _There were times where I felt like hitting a brick wall in my life. Like a prayer answered, Aoi was always there, tearing down that brick wall. Of course, she was unable to do it by herself, so we do it together, as one._ ” In the end, they were fascinated with his story, they agreed upon the fact that those two were really meant for each other.

In the middle of their conversation, a young Mi-Go citizen came upon them.

She looked towards Ayane. “Are you Cadet Ayane Kurayami?! Wow! I’ve been meaning to see you! I’ve heard stories about you as one of the best Class First cadet!”

Ayane looked shy. “Really? (Where did she hear that?)”

“Of course! I’m a fan of yours! When I’m older, I will be a fine cadet, just like you!” she energetically said.

“You will, young girl,” she said, smiling. She gave the young girl a soft pat on her hair.

“The name’s Tokime, pleasure to meet you all… anyhoo, I wanted you to have this, Cadet Kurayami. I made it myself.” She presented Ayane a beautiful blue ribbon. For a child that young, the ribbon was well made. Touched by her gift, Ayane shed a small tear, Ayane happily accepted the gift the girl gave her.

“Word spreads fast. You’ll get used to it, Cadet Kurayami,” Kurasame said.

From that point on, Ayane would wear the blue ribbon, she was in fact really liked that ribbon, so much so that she treasured that ribbon.


	27. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Class First entirely dismissed from military duties, they started to live their lives peacefully as normal students. If only it is that simple, though...

**Pyr. VII 837 R.G.**

Kurasame said, “Now that you’ve heard my story. I wanted to hear your story on why all of you still holding the knowing tags of the fallen to your battles.”

Between the five of them, Ayane was the first one to do so, thus, she was the first one to tell Kurasame her story regarding the knowing tags she told Miura before. As for Faia, he held two knowing tags belonging to cadets Jenifa and Taka, it has been months for him so far. Tomu, Haruka, and Akira just recently did so after their last battle, they agreed to always carry it on the battlefield as a reminder on what were they fighting for. “ _We fight for our friends, dead or alive. And for Rubrum,_ ” he said.

An hour passed as the sun finally reached its peak time. Kurasame picked this exact time to return home to Akademeia to test his and his cadets’ endurance during a midday march. On the road, it was painfully hot, but somehow, they endured it like nothing at all. In one hour, they eventually reached Akademeia. Upon entering the fountain plaza, everyone stared at them, it was crowded at that time due to the afternoon break. Class First would’ve expected a warm welcome, but seeing that only few returned, the others started whispering things Faia and his colleagues can’t hear about, it was probably for the best anyway, if they heard it, they might get upset.

For the rest of the day, they spent their time at their classroom, with only 5 of them sitting in a classroom that were able to contain 30 students. Despite claiming to have moved on, all of them could still feel the agonizing emptiness inside their hearts. For several moments that seemed forever, they were just stoned at their seats, doing nothing, not even talking to each other. Just last week, they were sitting happily alongside the fallen 11 cadets of their class, and now, everything was just so different with only 5 of them in the Class alongside Kurasame and his tonberry, all sitting silently as hours passed. Both Haruka and Akira were never that close with Faia and his friends before, but since they were the only ones left at Class First, they seemed to be slowly building a friendship with the trio, and now, they couldn’t imagine their lives without them. Seeing his demoralized cadets, Kurasame freed them from lectures for the rest of the week.

The next morning, Faia headed towards the terrace after paying his respects at the newly created grave marker in memorial of the fallen 11 Class First cadets. Knowing they wouldn’t be heading to the battlefield anymore, he planted their Blue Phoenix banner beside his classmates’ graves. Before heading to the terrace, he hanged his fallen friends’ knowing tags in front of his classroom, exactly beside the Rubrum flag. He decided to move on, finally realizing that it was no use trying to grieve on something he couldn’t remember. It was raining that day, even though it was rather light, it was enough for Faia to be alone at the terrace. To his surprise, there was also someone crazy enough to be standing in the rain as she suddenly arrived beside him.

“So, Class First are dismissed from active military duties permanently, huh?”

“Miura? I mean… the Representative, it’s raining, why would you…?”

Miura held her hand up. “It’s only a light rain, Faia. It wouldn’t stop me from coming here every morning.”

“I see. So, yeah, we are dismissed. Permanently, I suppose.”

“Will you miss the battlefield?”

He sighed. “I will. But then again, I guess normal student life shouldn’t be bad either.”

Miura remained silent, and Faia also remained silent. They just stared blankly into the grey clouds covering the sun, they both had something to say, but unsure whether to say it or not.

Suddenly, they both said, “So…”

Faia laughed. “Sorry, you’re first.”

“About that letter you gave me. I’ve read it, sorry... I was just too curious.”

“That’s okay. So, now you know my true feelings towards you.”

“Yeah, I was shocked, I didn’t realize about it for years. I’m terrible when it comes to this.”

Faia’s heartbeat quickened. “So, how are you feeling about it?”

“You’re a good man, Faia. I liked you too, but… I am married to my work, the burden of being the Representative, I suppose.”

“I see. In that case, I think being friends with you is enough for me, Representative.” Faia would be lying to be unhappy, but his expression showed he was fine with it.

“Indeed. I liked you as a friend, but I think you should know that we never know what will happen in the future,” she said, smiling. “Oh, my class is about to start, guess I have to go now. I envy you for your vacation Faia.”

Miura then started to leave, but not before doing something Faia would remember for the rest of his life. Under the cloudy skies and a rainy day, she kissed him on his cheeks. Faia’s eyes widen and his face reddened as she let go.

“That’s for keeping your promise to return home alive, Faia,” she said, smiling.

Faia was just stoned there, his heart was in flames after that surprising kiss. She then left him there to head to her class after giving him his knowing tag back.

Meanwhile, at the trainee class number two, Ayane visited Reon during their break time, Reon seemed to be nervous as it was Miyu’s birthday and he didn’t know what to say when he gave her the present.

“Just tell her, ‘here… happy birthday, Miyu, I hope you’ll like this’, it’s not that hard.”

“Yes… right. Wish me luck, Ayane.”

“I’m rooting for you! Now go, I’ll stand watch from here.”

Reon then approached Miyu at the back garden of their class, she just finished eating her lunch she brought earlier.

“Reon, hello. Do you need something?”

“It’s just that, this is your birthday, right? So…” –he cleared his throat— “Miyu, happy birthday. I have some present for you, I hope you’ll like it.”

Reon stood there while Miyu opened her present. Upon seeing the Mi-Go white chocolate, she was filled with joy.

“This is… amazing Reon! Thank you! How did you know that I loved white chocolates?”

Reon said in a nervous tone, “Oh, that… I didn’t know, I just think that... you’ll probably like it.”

“Is that so? Either way, thank you. You’re the first person to say ‘happy birthday’ to me.”

From afar, Ayane was smiling. “I guess that’s a job well done, Ayane. I’m proud of myself.”

And then, a trainee appeared behind Ayane.

“Excuse me. Is it true that you are Cadet Ayane Kurayami, Reon’s sister?”

Ayane turned around. “Yes. That would be me, who’s asking?”

“My name is Machina Kunagiri. I have a cadet brother, he said that he took part in several battles alongside Class First cadets, is that true?”

“Kunagiri… Oh, you must be Izana’s brother. Yes, he fought side by side alongside us for several times.”

“I see. I’m glad that he wasn’t lying then. He hasn’t been visiting me for days now, I wonder where he is now.”

“(For days? Those Class Ninth guys sure is busy.) I’m sure he’s busy with his tasks for now, he’ll visit you when he’s free, don’t worry.”

“Okay. Thank you for your time, Cadet Kurayami.”

On the Crystarium, Tomu already spent several hours reading there, as usual. That day, he read the tome of “Weapon Mastery”, he specifically read the chapter of the art of archery, it appeared that Tomu, viewing his supporting role in Class First, was thinking about learning a new type of weapon as he needed to protect himself while he protected his teammates, his current weapon, a poleaxe, appeared to be a rather poor choice for him, that’s why he was thinking about switching to a bow instead.

Just as he was about to return the book, a young man appeared behind him. He asked Tomu to hand the book towards him instead.

“I’ll gladly hand it to you. What’s your name, young man? It’s rare to see a young man interested in reading a book about weaponries.”

“My name is Trey. I’m currently learning the arts of archery. May I have the book now, please?”

“Of course, here you go.” Tomu then handed him the book, in which Trey thanked him, as Trey took his seat further away from him, Tomu mumbled, “Cold. I wonder if he’s in fact one of Doctor Arecia’s children too.”

A week passed after the First Battle of the Big Bridge, the Cadetmaster held a ceremony to award the Class First their first Medal of Honor, it was also attended by the rest of the Consortium and Kurasame. Finally, after a week, their endless grieving finally was put to a close, they were grateful to be the surviving Class First cadets and finally accepted their resignation from active military duties for the rest of their cadet lives, they agreed that there were more things in life other than killing another human being, they were students after all. As for Kurasame, he was relieved from his CO position until further notice, probably until Class First fully replenished their numbers. As everyone aware, it wasn’t easy to become a Class First cadet, and thus, Kurasame had to wait for a long time until that happened. For the time being, his cadets joined the other classes for their lecture sessions, but still retained their identities as Class First cadets.


	28. Tomu Takeda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomu wasn't always motivated on becoming a Class First cadet, but with overwhelming knowledge of pretty much everything, his Class First friends needed someone like him there.

**Sil. XXIX 836 R.G.**

Despite feeling it was pointless trying to reverse engineer the Crystal Jammer glove, Tomu still felt it was possible to do so, even though his classmates starting to leave the project. The ones who still worked on the project were Tomu, Mizuki, and 3 of their juniors. Still eager to solve the mystery, Tomu asked several of Class First cadets to commence a mock up battle at the arena, apparently, Tomu had a theory regarding the Crystal Jammer glove.

“You’d better treat my guys lunch later for this, Tomu.”

“Don’t worry, I got it covered, just go do your thing now.”

Faia laughed. “Don’t worry, I was kidding, we’ll do this voluntarily.”

Faia brought several of his classmates, including those who were about to graduate by the end of that year. Deploying a prototype data recorder, he used it to record their battle data prior to the jammer’s deployment. Just as Faia and his colleagues started to tire, he threw the glove right in the middle of the arena. Just as expected, Faia and his colleagues lose their magic almost immediately. Seeing this, Mizuki and the others wrote the data recorded by the device, giving the written reports to Tomu, he knew his theory was right.

After the mock up simulation, Faia and his colleagues gathered around Tomu to hear his verdict about the jammer.

“It was just as I suspected. The jammer… it created an energy field, or an invisible dome, if you will.”

“So, what does this ‘dome’ do to us?” Akira asked.

“The dome, as the name says, prevents our Crystal blessing from reaching you. And thus, you are magic-less as long as you’re inside ‘that’ dome.”

Faia frowned. “So in short, we need to get out of that dome if we want to restore our magic?”

“If only it was that easy, Faia.” Tomu said, he was right, Milites themselves were geniuses on their own regards. “Sooner or later, they might be coming up with a new idea to extend that dome reach.”

“The only way to counter it this time is to destroy it, undoubtedly,” Mizuki said.

“Even if that’s the solution, how can we even reach the jammer if our magic is suppressed?” Yoji asked.

“In that case. I have this crazy idea to reverse their mechanism. If I’m right, even though our magic is suppressed, it will not be entirely suppressed as my idea involves in counter-blocking that dome. It will allow us to use magic, although partly, it should be enough for us to at least reach that jammer and destroy it. I just need one more thing… what will be the thing to slip this anti-jammer stuff?”

“The genius Tomu Takeda strikes again!” Faia said, laughing.

Yoji clapped in respect. “Man… we could use someone like you in Class First, Tomu.”


	29. Emina's Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the capture of several Militesi high ranking commanders, Kurasame is tasked on questioning one of them. After his task is complete, he had an appointment with someone...

**Pyr. VII 837 R.G.**

Kurasame was tasked in questioning the prisoners Rubrum captured during the Battle of the Big Bridge, he was in charge of interrogating Colonel Qator Bashtar while Commander Tsurugi interrogated Master Sergeant Charon. The prison of Rubrum was an awful sight to see that both Kurasame and Tsurugi felt sick upon entering it. Thankfully, they didn’t have to interrogate them in there as they were escorted towards the questioning room above the prison. Both Kurasame and Tsurugi were tasked to gather information regarding the remnants of Lieutenant Faith’s whereabouts, as he was still deemed to possess a significant threat on the war.

Arriving with several papers at his hand and his tonberry, Kurasame greeted the Colonel in high regards. Qator recognized him as the former Champion of Rubrum.

“Did you remember me, champion?”

“No. This is not the time for nostalgia, I will give you questions and you’ll answer.”

Ignoring his words, Qator continued, “Did you remember that time where I was using you as my target practice? I remembered that there were four of you. Where did your friends go, Ice Reaper?”

Kurasame remained silent.

“Oh? Silence wouldn’t change the fact that one of those champions betrayed you and nearly killed you at that time.” Qator smirked. “Didn’t expect us to now? We know everything, Ice Reaper.”

Also ignoring his mockery, Kurasame proceeded to ask, “Where are the rest of Lieutenant Faith’s Magitek Armor regiment?”

“I have naught to say for the likes of you.”

“Very well, then. Second question, how do you expect Faith to survive the treacherous conditions of Mt. Neshter?”

Qator was shocked by the mention of Mt. Neshter. Before surrendering, both Charon and Qator were secretly informed by Faith that he was able to escape the battlefield and currently residing at Mt. Neshter to prepare their next plan of assault, Kurasame knowing Faith to be at Mt. Neshter remained a mystery for Qator. He could be bluffing for all he knew, but how Kurasame said it, he must be sure that Rubrum knew Faith was at Mt. Neshter.

“So you Rubrans already know, is that it? Then why bother asking me?”

“This is easier than I thought. Thank you for your information, Colonel.” Kurasame indeed was bluffing, saying, “Didn’t expect us to know? We know everything, White Thunder.” Kurasame then left the room, but not before his tonberry rudely _sticking its tongue out_ towards Qator.

After the interrogation, Tsurugi immediately marched back to his Legion camp at Meroe, in one-week time, he would be secretly invading Mt. Neshter alongside the Evocati to exterminate the remnants of the Empire’s Big Bridge regiment. Feeling relieved, Kurasame went back to his room with his tonberry to get some rest after that not-so-tiring endeavor with Qator.

Inside, he was already waited by Emina, she wasn’t wearing her instructor uniform.

“Hello, Kurasame, and the little guy. Are you guys done with the interrogation?”

“Yes. That was rather easy, if you ask me.” He then opened his mask. “So, about what you asked me before the battle, what is it?”

Emina took a deep breath. “First of all, I just want to let you know that Kazusa already know about this.” She then took a vial of a yellow-ish chemical compound. “I want you to do something for me.”

“What the hell is that? What is all this, Emina?”

She then opened her shirt right in front of Kurasame, shocking him very much, even his tonberry jumped in surprise.

“Whoa, what the hell?! Emina?! What are you think you’re doing?!”

“Don’t get the wrong idea!” She shouted, she then showed him a tattoo on her back.

Kurasame was deeply shocked. “You?! That tattoo…! That’s…”

“Yes. I am indeed an Imperial spy. Now listen to me…”

She then put back on her shirt, to Kurasame’s relief. She then explained about her true identity as a spy, a sleeper agent, to be exact, ready to be called anytime the Empire wanted it. Her actual mission was to assassinate Akademeia’s Archsorceress, Dr. Arecia Al-Rashia to deal a heavy blow in Rubrum’s magic capability. She even revealed that her upbeat and cheerful personality was a front to have Rubrans not giving suspicions towards her.

“Our friendship…” Kurasame said, “was it also a front?”

Emina’s eyes widen. “No! It wasn’t! I swear, in the name of our friendship it’s all real, Kurasame.”

Kurasame was deeply upset that he refused to look directly towards her and remained silent.

“So, you still don’t believe me, don’t you? This vial… Kurasame, it’s to help me erasing this tattoo, once and for all. I stole it, from Kazusa.”

“Kazusa actually didn’t know about this, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

Kurasame was deeply in a dilemma, in one side, he wanted to report all of it to the Consortium, but then again, they were best friends for a long time now, so long that Kurasame believed that it was all real. Image flashed through his mind, looking back the times when Emina and Kazusa was always there when he stumbled upon a brick wall. Like Aoi, those two were always there to tear apart that brick wall, allowing Kurasame to move forward in his life.

“Either way, it’s all up to you, Kurasame. It’s fine if you report me. But then, I will die and all these times we spent together will be meaningless.”

Kurasame took a deep breath. “Very well. How should I do this?”

“So you believe me?”

“I inspected the surroundings as we speak, and it seems that nothing’s out of order. If you’re here to kill me, I would be dead already, besides, the little guy seems to believe you.”

Emina glanced towards the tonberry and it also gave her a quick nod. She smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Kurasame. Let’s begin.”

She then gave him the directions on what he must do. The vial she stole from Kazusa was a strong chemical compound said to serve a different purpose than what she wanted, but the compound was strong enough to erase the tattoo Emina had. To not make Kurasame feeling uncomfortable, she only opened a part of her shirt, only showing her tattoo.

While Kurasame applied the compound, he asked, “What about the Empire? They should possess documents regarding you. If the Consortium finds out about it, then—”

“—Don’t worry, I have a man inside Milites, a high ranking official too. He is a loyalist to the _missing_ Emperor.”

“Who is this ‘man’ you’re talking about?”

“I don’t remember. But at least I remembered that this person got rid of the documents.”

“I see.” The tattoo then was part erased, all Emina had to do now was to take a bath and the tattoo would be erased entirely. “It’s done. Don’t worry, I’ll guard this secret with my life.”

As Emina turned around, their faces were only inches apart. “Thanks again, Kurasame. You’ve been such a good friend for me. If only we were more than…” she said, blushing. “Never mind, I have to go to clean this all up. See you around, Ice Reaper.”

With that, Emina found her resolve, she was finally able to dedicate herself to the Dominion and leave her spy past behind. In all honesty, she valued her friendship with Kurasame and Kazusa, it was one of her reason to leave Milites behind. One other reason she decided to abandon her mission was Morse’s discovery on Milites’ actual intention when they invaded Emina’s hometown, although she no longer remembered the details about it.

It turned out that Emina’s parents weren’t killed by some _loose_ monsters invading their hometown near Meroe. Actually, the monsters were coming from Milites, unleashed towards the town so Milites could show up as saviors while the Dominion never had the time to respond quickly. Emina was only a child at that time, she miraculously survived the onslaught. Showing up as saviors, they used the chaos ensued in her town to ultimately persuade her to join the Empire. At that time, Milites and Rubrum were at peaceful state, that was why Rubrum let Milites had their way, they even thanked them for their _quick_ response.


	30. Class First's Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Class First out of military duties, their combat abilities started to diminish. Day by day, they started to miss the cold, harsh, and unpredictable battlefield. But it's no use... they are no longer needed by Rubrum in their war efforts.

**Gla. XIII 837 R.G.**

More than a month passed and day by day, Class First’s combat ability slowly diminished, the dreaded case happened when Class First was thoroughly beaten by Class Tenth in a weekly spar. Class Tenth was formed as a secondary for Class First, but it didn’t change the fact that Class First was supposed to be known as the best of the best. From afar, Arecia shook her head and left the arena, seemingly disappointed by their defeat.

One of the Class Tenth cadet approached them. “What happened to you guys? Just a month ago, we kept hearing the stories of you guys defeating whole Class Second in a matter of minutes.”

“We… don’t know. We were probably rusty, besides, there were only 5 of us. What do you expect?” Faia said.

“Are you guys… upset with the Cadetmaster’s decision?”

“No…” Tomu said, “actually yeah, we accepted it at first, but then it all suddenly feels different for us. Like, without the battlefield, we don’t know what are we here for.”

“I see. All I can say is, you guys don’t have to be on the battlefield to be the best. You kicking our asses like usual is enough for us to be rooting for you. Please, don’t be like this, you guys are lucky to be Class First cadets.”

“Thank you, Class Tenth dude. Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” Ayane said.

“Oh? You can call me Tachinami, Class Tenth proud leader. Well then, I have to join the others, see you guys next time on the arena!”

As Tachinami disappeared to catch up with his friends outside the arena, they gave a thought about what he said, he was right, just because Class First were out of action doesn’t mean that they have to lose their title as the best of the best. They agreed to be more energetic the next time they sparred with the other classes. On the other hand, they discussed how strong Class Tenth were during their spar, their strengths were supposed to be on par with theirs, but their coordination and willpower single handedly won the fight.

“That Tachinami, he’s one hell of a leader, that dude.”

“Couldn’t agree more with you, Tomu,” Akira said.

“Class Tenth… yeah. Their willpower is their number one weapon,” Haruka said.

Faia said, “Right… you were at Class Tenth before, right?”

“Indeed I am. Each class had their unique traits, if you ask me.”

While recovering their strengths, they discussed the unique traits of each classes. Like Faia, Ayane was an ex-Class Third cadet, she said it was the friendliest class of all, that class was popular amongst the trainees that weren’t aiming for Class First. For Tomu, as a Class Eleventh cadet, he spent most of his time not at their classroom, but at the research lab instead alongside his classmates, creating wonderful inventions for Rubrum to use. Akira was from Class Second, where cadets with exceptional interests in military tactics and politics gathered.

Before they knew it, dusk arrived and sleepiness came upon them. Akira and Haruka decided to get some early sleep while Faia, Tomu, and Ayane grabbed their usual favorites at the ready room. In there, they were visited one of Arecia’s scientist, he told them that their presence was expected by Arecia that night at her facility. Wondering what this could be, they immediately packed their things early and followed him back to the facility.

Upon their arrival, the scientist advised them to try their ready room while waiting for their ‘escort’ to come. Strangely, they knew their way around the facility, yet why did they have to wait for an escort to pick them up? After finishing their delightful late lunch and some pleasant conversation, a young girl appeared in front of them, she was their escort. She motioned them to follow her to a place that called “The Alto-Crystarium”, a new part of the facility Arecia had been developing these few months past.

Along the way, Faia asked, “Never seen you before, you must be Ace’s friend, I presume?”

“Yes. But we are more like siblings. My name is Queen, pleasure to meet you, cadets Nishimura, Kurayami, and Takeda.”

“You knew us? Well, I guess Dr. Arecia told you about us.”

“Correct.”

“Right. I have a feeling we will get along really well, Queen.” Ayane teased.

Queen remained silent.

They finally reached the Alto-Crystarium’s front door where Arecia should be waiting for them inside. Queen took her leave after politely excused herself.

“That Queen girl… she’s cold, like Ace was to us back then.”

“I wonder if there’s more of them than those two. If there is, surely they are just as cold as they are.”

After they were done talking, the door opened automatically. They entered it and Arecia was at the front of a large unknown machine.

“Long time no see, my children.”

“Dr. Arecia, it’s been awhile. Sorry we didn’t come to visit you these few months past.”

“It’s fine, I was worried that with your exceptional powers, you would forget the one who blessed you with it.”

“No, I can assure you that we didn’t. So, what’s the matter, Doctor?”

Arecia then faced them. “I saw you at the arena today. Your defeat, to be precise.”

“About that…” Faia said, “are you disappointed?”

Arecia shockingly said, “No, not at all. In fact, I was surprised.”

They all frowned by her statement.

How come?” Faia asked.

“Allow me to refresh your memory. Your magic was no longer tied with the Crystal. In order to maintain your magic, you need something to fuel it. But, you haven’t been on the field for a long time now and yet, your magic is still working properly, still strong too if you ask me.”

“But you said that you can replenish our strength.”

“Indeed I can. But in order to do so, you need to come here, and you haven’t been here for months now.”

“We’re sorry for that. But now, can you please explain what you really mean?” Tomu asked.

“You are evolving, my dear. Your phantoma has evolved beyond my expectations. Now, your magic can be fueled by your own phantoma, as long as you’re alive and healthy.

“Even so, this doesn’t mean that you are no longer able to obtain phantoma. Those are still the better option to sustain your magic, and besides, we need those for our magic research.”

They were surprised by her findings. They had a mixed feeling between excited and terrified, they never knew they could evolve like that. Similar to the Evocatus, their experience in the field apparently had them naturally evolving by themselves, it was almost as if their body learned to rely on its own to cast spells rather than fueling it with someone else’s soul. Like Arecia said, it didn’t mean that they could easily use magic after that, as quoted “ _as long as you’re alive and healthy_ ”. Without phantoma to harvest, they must importantly remain healthy in order for them to be able to cast magic.

“But we are relieved from military duties, Doctor. How are we supposed to do that?”

“My, my, you aren’t following the news, aren’t you, Kurayami?”

Arecia then relayed the information about a peace treaty between Rubrum and Milites. After being pressured by both Lorica and Concordia, Milites finally agreed to peace talks, they had no means of continuing the war nonetheless, as the Battle of the Big Bridge really took a toll on both sides, not to mention that Faith, the last commander Milites had, was successfully captured by Tsurugi’s task force few weeks back. Both Lorica and Concordia threatened to ally with Rubrum should Milites refused the peace agreement, that would definitely a disaster for them.

“When did this happen, Doctor?”

“Two days ago. Milites claimed that they were already shutting down their development on all of their steelworks, from 01 to 08. I was with the Representative during our meeting with the Empire, and we knew that something was off. Of course, the Consortium didn’t realize about it because Section 4 didn’t tell them anything.”

“Doctor, please, slow down. What’s wrong with the peace treaty? And what does this have to do with us not being in the field anymore?” Faia asked.

“Head to Section 4 tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Representative Miura will be expecting you all. It’s nighttime, you could be scolded for sneaking out of Akademeia, you’d better leave.”

Just as they started to leave, Faia stopped in his tracks, prompting the trio to do the same.

He said, “So, about our last battle… we returned alive, and everyone hailed us as heroes who stopped the Crystal Jammer.”

“And?”

“We served our purpose, right? So, if I ask you, do we deserve to be called heroes?”

All Arecia said was, “Your souls had infinite possibilities, and now you’ve all chosen your path.” Not saying anything else, the trio left her with nothing more to say.

As the trio disappeared, Arecia mumbled to herself, “Farewell, children. You’re truly a stepping stone for the future. I’m… sorry, there was no other way.”

On their way back, they discussed what would they expect the next day. Tomu had a suspicion about their steelworks as mentioned by Arecia. It was claimed by Milites that they were already shutting down all of their steelworks for the peace treaty. As known by everyone, The Empire possessed 8 steelworks, named from Steelworks 01 to Steelworks 08, but he remembered during their travel north of the Big Bridge, the Empire had a secret base there as mentioned by Izana. The anomaly was that Arecia didn’t mention about the Empire shutting down a secret base. Something big and bad was about to come, and they knew it.


	31. Whatever It Takes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The peace was indeed too good to be true, Milites actually planned a nefarious plan to conquer Orience in the blink of an eye. Now, only several personnel are privy to this information, and they are the only ones who are able to stop it.

**Gla. XIV 837 R.G.**

The next day, Faia skipped class and headed towards Section 4 instead, as ordered by Arecia. He already felt bad by skipping the class, but he knew better to put his duty above everything, who knew he could be sent to the field once again after all these days doing nothing? Inside, he met Tomu and Ayane, who also skipped their class, and surprisingly, Akira and Haruka as well. As they entered the lecture hall, it was crowded by several Class Ninth members, including Izana himself. They all stared at the Class First cadets, it has been awhile since they last saw Class First cadets entering their lecture hall.

Faia took a seat beside Izana, he finally recovered from his wounds, but his face was forever marked with a scar spanning from his forehead to his lips.

Izana nervously asked, “So, are you guys ready?”

“For what?”

“I see. I guess you don’t know about it yet.”

As they talked, Miura entered the lecture hall with a worried look. Without further delay, she presented a large Orience map in front of the class. There were marks on the map, marking the northern part of the Big Bridge all the way to a mountain range at Militesi territory, the mountain range was written as “Steelworks 00”, this was already wrong in every direction in Faia and his colleagues’ eyes, they finally had a slight grip on the current situation.

At first, she brought the topic of the peace treaty between Rubrum and Milites, in which Milites promised on shutting down their steelworks while Rubrum, in return, would release all of their prisoners, including Qator, Charon, and Faith back to Milites. As a sign of goodwill, both sides agreed on a temporary defensive alliance as an insurance for the two for not attacking each other for a long period. Both sides did what they promised to do, with Rubrum prisoners already reaching Militesi territory as they spoke and at the same time, Milites just confirmed the ceasing of all of their military activity, including their Steelworks 01 to 08.

“I’m sure you Class First cadets figured what I said.”

Tomu raised his hand. “Of course. They shut down Steelworks 01 to 08, but on that map… there is one more facility, the Steelworks 00. I presume The Empire didn’t say anything about it.”

“Correct. That facility’s existence is proven by one of ours, Cadet Minatsuchi and his team. Well, so much for the rumors of the King Behemoth’s lair. On a perfect world, that facility did not exist on any records whatsoever.

“Furthermore, what worries us is not the existence of that facility, but rather what they are doing in there.” She then motioned towards Naghi. “Cadet Minatsuchi, I leave the explaining to you.”

Naghi stepped on the stage, and began his presentation of his discovery. “This particular facility develops something called ‘Ultima Bomb’. I’m sure that if you’re not skipping history classes, you’ll know what it is. Moving on, my team discovered that the experiment is alive and well even after the peace treaty. What’s even scarier is that one bomb is primed and ready to be launched.”

Ayane raised her hand. “Wait, how did your team infiltrate that facility and leave with pretty much everything we need to know?”

“Simple. That mission was also a field test with our recently discovered ‘Invisiga’ magic, courtesy of Class First’s efforts on our magic development. We were able to spend an hour there undetected, allowing us to gather any information on what we need.”

“Okay. Now you said that one bomb is ready to be launched. Where are they planning to use it?”

“That’s the scariest part. There was a mark on the bomb, ‘Togoreth Stronghold’. You realize what makes it scary, correct?”

The next day, there would be a feast attended by the four nations the next day exactly at Togoreth Stronghold to celebrate the success on the peace agreement. It would be attended by Lorican King Gilgamesh Ashur and the Concordian Queen Andoria Kaya Tranka Fam Forturio, which was somehow, even more terrifying.

“Are they planning to bury us all in there?!” Tomu shouted.

Naghi then glanced towards Miura, prompting her to step up back at the stage. “Indeed, they are planning to do just that. We just received news that only several Militesi officials were at Togoreth stronghold for now, and the Marshall is said to be still at Ingram.

“With all of the important members of the three nations gathered there, it will be devastating for the three nations. Imagine the three nations, leaderless, weakened. Before our eyes, Orience will be conquered by Milites.”

“Then tell the Consortium, Lorica, and Concordia! We’ll confront them with these,” Tomu shouted, pounding the table as he let out his frustration.

If only it was that simple. Everybody knew how elusive the Empire was to this day, if they were to confront them, Milites would simply deny it and bury the facility before their eyes. Worst case scenario, they will accuse Rubrum of espionage, breaking the peace treaty, and as a result, Concordia and Lorica themselves will turn against them. Then again, if the Concordians and the Loricans believed them, it would be too late. Some of their important officials were already gathered at Togoreth as they briefed, as well as The Consortium, except for Dr. Arecia, because she was already warned by Miura not to go there. If there was a case they believed in Rubrum, Milites simply needed to bomb them out of existence ahead of their schedule and it would have the same impact as they planned.

There was only one solution to save them all, but it was a costly one. It was to disable the Ultima Bomb and destroy the whole facility in the process, erasing everything related to the Ultima Bomb, effectively erasing it from existence. In order to do so, they have to “go rogue against the Dominion and destroy the facility by themselves, using revenge as a motive”. Even if they succeeded, Milites would surely claim the base as one of their disabled Steelworks, as it was located nearby one of their “actually” disabled Steelworks, the number 07, in the end, everyone who participated it would be branded as “traitors” and be executed upon their return, and thus, Miura added that this mission would be a “one-way trip”, with dying as a better option than execution.

“I will be participating in this mission personally, as it is my responsibility as the leader of Code Crimson.” This statement shocked everyone, including the Class Ninth cadets who were already aware of the mission. “I did not force you to participate in this mission. So, anyone who refuses to take on this fateful mission is allowed to leave this room, right at this moment, but please, for the sake of our success, keep this mission a secret for the rest of your lives.

“If you decide to participate, I will do everything in my power to ensure your whole identities remain in the dark, only leaving our first names to be known to the public.”

One by one, Class Ninth cadets started to leave the lecture hall, until it was only Izana, Naghi, and the whole Class First cadets that were left. Faia was glad that his classmates decided to participate in their mission that he gave them a proud nod to each of them. Actually, this was the moment they were waiting for, to take revenge on the empire for their fallen classmates. Revenge… was indeed their motive, aside from their love for the Dominion, and of course… the future of Orience.

Miura smiled, but somewhat sadly. “I see. So these are the ones willing to make the sacrifice for the future. I am sorry it had to come to this. There was no other choice.”

“We… Class First cadets are prepared for this. You can count on us, Representative.”

Izana raised his hand. “You’ll stand a better chance with the best chocobo rider in Orience.”

“Very well, Everyone. Let’s begin.”

Miura already devised their plan of assault, using a reversed Crystal Jammer Class Ninth developed with the help of Class Eleventh, they planned on using it against the Ultima Bomb. Miura guaranteed that the device would work perfectly given the circumstances. As there were 8 of them, she split the team in two where the first team would be in charge of the Ultima Bomb while the other team was put in charge of the demolition of the facility, strangely enough, Naghi’s name was not on the list.

Additionally, someone would later inform the Consortium of their betrayal, and in turn, they would inform Milites about the incoming threat. Time is of the essence and they have to finish their mission before they were caught between two armies instead of one. If they got caught between the two, they would have no choice but to engage the Rubrans, turning it into a real act of treason. After an hour of discussion, they came up with a conclusion, they would commence at the dead of the night later that day.

Naghi frowned. “Wait, what about me? My name is not on any of the team.”

Miura smiled. “You’re still too young, I cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself in this.”

“But, Representative… I am willing to.”

“I know, that’s why I’m putting you in charge of our identities. You will sneak towards the grand archive hall and get rid of every documents related to us.

“That’s an order. You were born for this, Naghi, I could see it in you. When this is all over, I want you to take over Code Crimson, for all of us.”

Naghi looked upset. “Yes, Representative. I will.”

There was still some time left for them, Miura advised them to say their goodbyes to the ones involved in this mission. Soon, Class First gathered at the facility’s ready room, seemingly discussing something interesting.

“Guys, I think we all know that anybody who believed in this story later on must have a screw loose in their head.”

Ayane said, “Yeah, I mean, the Representative is the most trusted cadet in all Akademeia, her betraying the Dominion seems… off to me.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“I already have a plan of my own.” Tomu smirked. “You guys surely would love to have all the glory, right?”

They all seemed reluctant, but they agreed on him.

“Well, it wouldn’t change the fact that we will be traitors, but… The Dominion’s credibility will be saved alongside the Representative. Faia surely approves this plan to save his beloved.”

“Eh?! It’s not like that. We’re only friends now, get it?!”

“Of course you are.” Tomu laughed. “Moving on…”

Class First were right all along, surely they couldn’t sacrifice The Representative, her turning rogue all of a sudden without a motive would surely put a hole in their plan, as for Class First, they were undeniably the best candidates for this mission, “unhappy with the peace treaty, Class First went rogue to chase Marshall Cid who was overseeing the shutdown of Steelworks 07 to avenge their fallen 11 classmates.” That’s the motive they could use.


	32. Traitors of the Vermillion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miura's plan had too many holes in it, it is up to Tomu, the class' genius, to come up with a better plan. Although, the plan still asked a heavy price...

**Gla. XIV 837 R.G.**

Tomu had a plan to ensure everything goes well, it involved Class First taking all the glory in this mission.

“Ever heard of traitors amongst the traitors?” Tomu asked.

Akira said, “Weird term.”

With great confidence, he told them his plan was to turn against Miura and the others, removing them from this mission. He planned to use a false information that Miura and her colleagues were actually double agents that were placed among them to stop Class First from doing the mission. Additionally, as the Dominion would definitely send their Evocati in response to the traitors’ threat, they could be used by Class First instead to rescue Miura and the others. Akira knew how to fake a handwriting, he offered to write a note informing the Consortium about their betrayal by imitating Miura’s handwriting.

“If it comes to that, we’ll have to hurt them, then,” Haruka said.

“That’s easy, just make sure you don’t kill them.”

“Easier said than done, Faia.”

“There is one more hole we need to fix,” Tomu said, “that Izana… he’s a Class Ninth cadet, he shouldn’t be clever enough to be a double agent, this could put Class Ninth’s secret identities as Intelligence Officers at risk.”

“You’re right. Damn, The Rep sure put us in a difficult situation here.”

Faia interjected, “She’s a human, Ayane. Given the time window, I think she has done everything in her power for this.”

“Right, sorry to say that about your beloved. So what can we do?”

“It’s still a risk, but I can fake the documents regarding his position. Let’s say he was actually a Class Second cadet deliberately put into Class Ninth so that ‘we’ shouldn’t be suspecting a thing with Izana.”

“Again, easier said than done. Sounds like a lot of work, but I think you can pull it off, Tomu.”

Akira raised his hand. “Wait, I think we ‘can’ pull it off. Izana ‘was’ in fact a Class Second cadet, I just remembered that! Hell, that’s why he looked familiar for me.”

“Ah, easier for me then. The Rep must’ve handpicked him for Class Ninth back then.”

“There’s one more thing,” Faia said, “it’s none other than the Representative and Izana themselves. The only safe way to knock them out is to ensure they’re unaware of our planned ambush. By the time they woke up, I hope they are safely returned at Akademeia, clueless on what happened. By that time, we will be erased from everyone’s memories.”

Haruka said, “Sad. But I prefer a free Orience rather than iron-gripped Orience.”

Faia’s last sentence stirred them, but they had chosen this path on their own accord, if they succeeded, they would be saving everyone’s future, even though they would be forever remembered as traitors. Not that it matters, as hopefully, Naghi should be able to erase their documents, so everyone related to them would be safe, their siblings, families, parents, and everyone else.

As it was still in the morning, they still have the time to execute their plan, Faia and Ayane would each distract both Miura and Izana while Tomu sneaked into the grand archive hall doing his part of the plan. As for Akira he started crafting the fake letter informing their betrayal, it should take a while as Miura’s handwriting seemed to be the hardest he faced so far. As for Haruka, she was tasked with informing Naghi their change of plan to not to erase both Izana’s and Miura’s documents.

That afternoon, Naghi finally showed up at the grand archive hall, there was no one else but him. Just as Naghi started to gather the documents, Haruka pulled her dagger, appearing in front of him.

“Cadet Haruka? What are you doing here?”

“Sorry, change of plan, little one. You will do as I say. If not, well…” she then played her dagger around, threatening Naghi.

“W-what? O-okay, please… don’t hurt me.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. All you have to do is to not get rid of Izana’s and the Rep’s documents, that’s all.”

“What are you planning to do, Cadet Haruka?” Naghi asked in a nervous tone.

“We? We will be heroes. That’s what. Izana and The Rep will live through the future we paved for them, for all of you.”

“I-I don’t understand…”

Naghi still couldn’t comprehend what Haruka said. Thankfully, she willingly explained it to him thoroughly about their change of plan, in which it finally made sense for Naghi. He was reluctant at first, but upon hearing Haruka’s full explanation, he agreed that Miura’s plan was indeed full of holes while Class First’s plan made more sense, although it still involves Class First being used as sacrificial lambs.

“I pray that… we’ll remember you, Cadet Haruka, and the others. If not, I pray that at least we’ll remember your true deeds.”

Haruka smiled. “I hope you all will. Thank you, Naghi.”

Meanwhile, at Section 4’s terrace, Miura was there with Faia, enjoying the calm breeze of the strangely cold afternoon that day.

“We’ll be doing this for everyone’s future. I’m happy to give my life just for that, and to do it alongside you, I’m even happier.”

Faia remained silent.

And then, Miura’s tears started to flow through her face. “I’m sorry, Faia.”

“For what?”

“That future I told you about, I suppose there will be none for us.”

“I guess… dying as your friend is enough for me,” he said, smiling in tears.

“Faia, if we are to die later. I wanted to give you something we will remember, even in the afterlife.”

Without giving Faia a time to reply, she pulled Faia closer towards her, without hesitating, she kissed him, Faia was shocked, with his heartbeat quickened, he kissed her back. After the kiss, both of their faces reddened, they were both actually glad to be able to do it before their fateful mission. Unfortunately, Miura would never know that only one of them will be going to afterlife at the end of the day.

“I… have to go, Faia. See you soon at the gates,” she said, still blushing.

As she left, Faia cried heavily, there would be no going back after this. But even so, those weren’t tears of regret for his decision to be a sacrificial lamb for the future, but instead for him not having a future with Miura who he held dear so much, especially after that kiss.

Meanwhile, during the afternoon break back at Akademeia, Ayane and Izana was visiting the trainee class where their siblings were placed. Both of them talked to each other, jokingly comparing Machina and Reon’s capabilities as future cadets. But suddenly, Izana changed the subject.

“You know, Cadet Kurayami… My love for chocobos came from my brother, I even let him name one of my chocobos.”

“Really? What does he name it?”

“It’s bad. He named it ‘Upsy-daisy’,” Izana said, chuckling between his words.

“What kind of name is that?”

Izana then called Machina.

What now, big brother? I got stuff to do.”

“Machina, do you want to tell her how weird ‘Upsy-daisy’ as a name for a chocobo?”

“It’s not weird! That’s better than naming it as ‘S.S. Over The Rainbow’!” Machina said, half shouting.

“Excuse me, did I hear someone giving chocobo a name ‘Upsy-daisy’? That’s horribly lame!” Reon shouted from afar, his fellow trainees soon laughed hysterically after that.

“Damn you Reon! I’m going to get you for that one!”

Reon then stuck his tongue out towards Machina, prompting him to chase after him outside the classroom. Their classmates shook their head watching them acting like a child, well, they were still considered a child at that time.

“A sight like that, we’ll never see that again tomorrow.”

“Come on, Izana. Don’t be like that. It’s not helpful during this time.”

Izana chuckled. “You’re right. Sorry about that, Kurayami.”

“You know, Reon was not like this before. He had a hard time making friends during his childhood. But in here, you can see the change in him. I don’t know what drives him, but I can’t complain, it’s good to be honest.”

“That’s great. I can say the same for my brother too, his only friend was me and a girl from our village by the name of Rem Tokimiya. We used to play together when we were little, you know? We love pulling pranks on our neighbors, Machina was so bad that he often got caught.”

“Sounds like a great childhood.” Ayane nodded approvingly.

“Yeah. Good times indeed.”


	33. For the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final hour approaches. No matter the cost, these Class First cadets are still unshaken, their training to erase their fear of deaths indeed lingered inside their hearts. It is now up to them to ensure everything goes well.

**Gla. XV 837 R.G.**

The hour of the fateful mission approached.

“The time has come,” Miura said, in front of her comrades. In silence, they marched secretly towards the known location of Steelworks 00. On their way, Tomu secretly told his fellow Class First cadets that everything was in place for their plan and now comes the hard part where they have to execute the plan. Faia went ahead to scout their path towards their objective, in which his true intention was to set up an ambush for Miura and Izana at their planned spot.

Back at Akademeia, just as Kurasame was ready to sleep, a tribune knocked on his door, he relayed the order from the Cadetmaster that Kurasame’s presence at the Central Command was expected. Not knowing what awaited him, he walked towards the Central Command with anxiety, this was at the dead of the night, _what could this be now?_ He wondered. Just as he reached the Central Command, he could see Commander Tsurugi alongside several Evocati Captains talking with the Cadetmaster and the Commandant.

Tsurugi glanced towards him. “Commander Kurasame. Good to see you again.”

“Likewise. Mind telling me what’s going on this late?”

And then, the room went silent.

“Class First have betrayed the Dominion.”

“What?!” Kurasame asked in shock.

The Cadetmaster spoke, “Class First is heading towards Steelworks 07 as we speak, in pursuit of Marshall Cid and the other Militesi commanders stationed there. Representative Miura and one of her operatives is currently pursuing them. But knowing Class First’s reputation, the Representative is heading straight towards her own grave.”

“Is there proofs to their betrayal? What are their motives?”

“We have some statements from multiple witnesses. And most importantly, one of our Intel Officers, Cadet Naghi Minatsuchi discovered that their motive is to exact revenge on the Empire after they seemingly upset with our peace treaty.

“We tried to gather their documents, their names, families, and such. But they planned ahead, every documents that are related towards them are either missing or destroyed as we found several burned papers just outside the chocobo ranch. And thus, their betrayal is surely confirmed.”

Kurasame asked several more questions, most importantly why did they went rogue all of the sudden, knowing how strong the mentalities of Class First cadets, he knew that there were already several screws that were off at this betrayal.

“We’ve put them through much. Their classmates’ death, their withdrawal from military, their withdrawal from Code Crimson. They were supposed to be the best of the best. What I did towards them permanently tainted their reputation. Moreover, us making peace with those they hated so much didn’t help either,” the Cadetmaster explained, indirectly claiming this was part her fault.

Kurasame sighed. “Very well. What are my orders?”

“You will make contact with Colonel Bashtar of Milites near Meroe. This time, we will be fighting side by side with them to stop Class First from breaking the peace treaty. Tsurugi and 10 of his best will accompany you in this mission.” –The Cadetmaster took a deep breath— “That’s all. Return home safely, all of you.”

After saluting the Cadetmaster and the Commandant, Kurasame’s squad marched towards Meroe hastily on their chocobos. On their way, Kurasame established contact with Qator, the Imperial Colonel was already waiting for them at the city of Meroe. Then, he tried establishing contact with those who were _pursuing_ Class First, to no avail.

“Damn it, I can’t establish contact with Miura. Did she even bring her COMM with her?”

Tsurugi calmly said, “We can still remember her. She should be fine with her operative.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“Alright, we’re approaching Meroe by now. Who would’ve thought we’ll be working with the peoples we just killed months earlier, huh?”

Kurasame smirked. “Moreover, we’ll be working alongside their high commander.”

In actuality, Miura did bring her COMM with her. Kurasame was in fact able to reach her, but the one who held her COMM wasn’t Miura herself, and the one who heard him finally knew what and who were coming towards them and when would those reinforcements arrived.

Few hours earlier,

The _rogue_ Class First finally approached the Steelworks, even though they were nearing their objective, Faia was still nowhere to be seen and he didn’t respond to any of their calls. They decided to proceed further towards the Steelworks, cautiously, fearing an ambush from the Imperials. Due to the darkness, Miura and Izana suddenly got separated from the rest of Class First, they stopped at their tracks, trying to call their location. Thankfully, Ayane was responding to their call, but something was wrong, Miura did hear Ayane from the COMM, but not far from her position, she could hear the exact same thing Ayane said through the COMM.

Not giving Miura and Izana time to respond, all of the Class First cadets descended towards their spot, hitting them in the head with the blunt part of their weapons, effectively knocking them out.

Faia emerged from the darkness. “Now we’ll wait for a second here to ensure they’re alive.”

Ayane shook her head. “Very funny, Faia.”

“By the way, Ayane, I noticed that you’re not wearing that blue ribbon you liked today.”

Ayane remained silent.

Several moments passed and they turned out to still remember those two, ensuring that those two were still alive.

“Well, they’re stil alive, thankfully.” Akira joked.

“Sorry, Representative, Izana. If anyone have to do this, it’s us.”

“Betraying your own nation to save the world, what’s better time to live than now?” Haruka said.

According to their plan, Tomu had to wait there for several moments to confirm who would be coming after them by taking both Izana and Miura’s COMM while the rest continued their approach towards the Steelworks. After an hour of waiting, he finally heard Kurasame’s voice through Miura’s COMM. He was shocked that the Dominion sent their own former CO to personally deal with them. Kurasame also informed through the COMM that he would be there in an hour, that’s their time window, one hour… to end it all, before they were given no choice but to engage the Rubrans.

Back at Meroe, Kurasame finally reached Qator’s group, for the first time in centuries, Rubrum and Milites finally marched together as one once again with one same goal. Not wanting their personal enmities got in the way, Kurasame had something to say.

“Colonel Bashtar. It seems fate wanted us to stop fighting after all, correct?”

“I never thought it would come to this. But now I know you Rubrans are honorable people, I am honored to fight alongside you, Ice Reaper.”

“Please refer to me as Kurasame Susaya instead,” –Kurasame took a deep breath— “the Ice Reaper was past its prime and I’m nothing more than a Commander of a task force now.”

“I see. Well, it’s a pleasure, Commander Kurasame.” Qator said, feeling honored.

“Likewise, how’s the Marshall? Has he been informed of the situation?”

“Yes. He’s already evacuated from the steelworks as we speak, the traitors are heading straight into their deaths.”

Qator then moved further as he wanted to talk with Tsurugi regarding their plan of assault. Left alone, suddenly Kurasame received a COMM call from someone back at Akademeia.

“(On COMM) Commander Kurasame.”

“Who is this?”

“(On COMM) This is Dr. Arecia. I have a special order for you. I know you’ll comply as I know you are feeling this betrayal was too good to be true.”

“Very well. I’m listening.”

How Arecia knew it? Kurasame would never know, as a matter of fact, he didn’t care at all as he was in fact knew that there was something in their betrayal. Secretly, Arecia informed him the true purpose of their betrayal, Kurasame tried really hard to keep his cool as he walked beside his comrades. Then, Arecia asked Kurasame to slow the task force’s advance by going ahead of them and create some obstacles ahead of them. Kurasame asked her whether if it was still possible to save Class First from all of this.

“(On COMM) I’m afraid it’s a no. Their fates are sealed, and you must do this to ensure their deaths will not be in vain. Furthermore, you will be saving the lives of those marching with you.”

“One more thing. Does these people working with me know their nation’s true intention, because they looked—,”

“(On COMM) No. Only Marshall Cid, Sergeant Major Charon, the l’Cie Nimbus and their new l’Cie knew about this.”

“I see. I don’t know how you know all this, but I’m sure you were right.”


	34. Kurasame Susaya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurasame experienced a similar event in the past, although he couldn't entirely remember the details, the emptiness after those events still haunts him.

**Sil. V 835 R.G.**

After reading the letter of his fallen friend, Kurasame headed towards the section four facility, looking for a certain Class Ninth cadet to help him on something. Upon entering the lounge, his heart filled with both eagerness and vengeance after that terrible truth he just found out from this “Guren” who told him pretty much everything in his last will.

Seeing him arrived, the cadet took a seat beside him. “What brings you here, Cadet Susaya?”

“I need your help, Cadet Minatsuchi.”

“Very well. What can I do for you?”

Kurasame then explained him what truly happened to the Four Champions of Rubrum, in which the Cadetmaster sold them to the highest bidder to obtain information regarding Militesi’s new range of weaponries to attain personal glory being the only one who knew about their inventions, although she probably had a reasonable excuse to do so, it still didn’t change the fact that she sold Kurasame and his friends to the Empire.

Naghi frowned. “This is… awful. I can’t believe she did all this.”

“That’s why I need your help. What should I do?”

“We can’t afford having a traitor in the Consortium. She had to go.”

Kurasame said, “Had to go, you say? Can’t we force her to confess her crimes instead?”

“No. That would cause a major freak out in the public.”

Naghi was right. The public would be freaked out to have a traitor amongst themselves, the Consortium to be exact. The Cadetmaster indeed had to be put down before she was able to obtain any information to claim her personal glory. Naghi proposed a plan to hunt down the official who was talking with her at first, and then, when the info regarding the exchange was discovered, they would steal the show and keep the information for themselves, promising to use it for greater good instead. It might be a terrible thing to do, but it was preferable than having someone taking the glory by sacrificing her own people.

“Aside from preventing her from getting the glory, you’ll have your revenge for your friends.”

“Vengeance. Yes, I’m content with that. I trusted her my comrades’ lives, and this is what I get in return.”

“Well then, give us 4 days, and we’ll call you again, Cadet Susaya.”

“Thank you, Cadet Minatsuchi.” Noticing that Naghi wore a bandana he never saw before, he asked, “That bandana… where did you get it?”

Naghi looked upset. “Honestly, I don’t remember. But I’m sure it’s one of your friend, Cadet Susaya, because I remember the time and place where I was given this.”

“I see. Whoever that was, they must be hoping the best for you.”

And then, for several days, Naghi formed a secret task force in sweeping those who were involved in the conspiracy. Both Rubrum and Milites couldn’t escape their watch, for four days, both nations started receiving news regarding the sudden death of several of their officials, in which all of them having the same cause of death, “sudden illness”. Finally, after obtaining the information they needed, they only needed to tie one loose end, the Cadetmaster herself. On the fifth day, Naghi, Kurasame, and several Class Ninth cadet sneaked themselves towards the front door of the Cadetmaster’s office. Giving them a nod, Kurasame entered alone, telling the others to wait outside.

Filled with eagerness on completing his mission, Naghi waited patiently for Kurasame for several minutes. Finally, the door knob finally clicked, and the door was open.

Emerging from the room, Kurasame said, “It’s almost over. I leave the rest up to you.”

“It’s been an honor to be working alongside you again, Cadet Susaya.”

Upon entering the Cadetmaster’s office, the Class Ninth cadets stared at the stoned Cadetmaster, she was still reluctant on taking her life as asked by Kurasame. After moments of agonizing silence, one of the Class Ninth cadet stepped up and grabbed the dagger Kurasame placed in the table. Surging towards her, the cadet thrusted the dagger deep inside her heart, killing her instantly.

“Good call,” Naghi said.

“Thanks, Naghi. Okay, now let’s do what we do best.”

Meanwhile, Kurasame was at his dorm, at this moment, his memory of Cadetmaster had vanished, and all he remembered was that he was caught in the middle of a pointless political affair that costed him the lives of his dear friends.

“ _I hope… this kind of things would never happen again. If it is to happen again, I hope it is for the good, and not for some pointless political affair._ ”

Kurasame would be surprised, in the future.


	35. The Final Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting closer towards their objective, it starts to get heavy for the cadets as they will soon have to face a heavy resistance in order to complete their mission.

**Gla. XV 837 R.G.**

“I see. I’ll do my best, Doctor.” Kurasame then cut off his contact with Arecia. He then informed Tsurugi and Qator that he would be scouting ahead, knowing Class First’s reputation, it should be imperative for them to get an idea on what they would be up against, and thus, Kurasame went ahead of them. Warping around the hilly terrain, he created some obstacles along the way as ordered by Arecia. He eventually reached the spot where he finally caught the sight of Izana and Miura, both leaning unconscious on the mountain wall.

Suddenly, an arrow was fired towards Kurasame. It missed him, but it looked deliberate by the shooter.

“Cadet Takeda, you can lay down your arms now.”

Tomu emerged out of the darkness. “Commander Kurasame. You’re early.”

“You know I would come?” Kurasame said, somewhat calmly, as if he was sure Tomu wasn’t going to kill him.

“Of course. You gave it all away when you said it through the Rep’s COMM.”

Kurasame shook his head. “Of course you are. I should’ve been more careful.”

“So, you know everything, Commander?”

“Yes. Dr. Arecia told me everything. I was… shocked.”

“I see. Then you know better not to go further this point.”

Kurasame then informed that his task force would soon ascend upon his position and that they didn’t much time left. With this, Tomu asked him one last request for him; to carry both Izana and Miura to safety. To slow the task force further, Kurasame was asked to deliberately inform the task force to be aware of their path, telling them that Class First primed some traps to slow them down.

“Oh, they’ll realize something’s wrong if I didn’t do anything to you, so… don’t mind me.”

Without giving Kurasame time to react, Tomu conjured a moderately strong thunder magic straight towards his face, it didn’t hurt that much, though, but it was enough for the impression of him being assaulted.

“Now, report to the rest that you’re being attacked.”

Kurasame sighed. “Anyone that’s listening! I’m under attack by the Class First cadets!”

“(On COMM) This is Tsurugi! Hang in there, Kurasame. We’ll be there soon!”

“I found the Representative and her operative. They’re still alive but they’re weak.”

“(On COMM) We got this! I brought several medics in our team. What about the Class First cadets?! Where did they go?”

“I only saw one of them attacking me. I suppose they’re already at the facility.”

Seeing everything was still going according to plan, Tomu turned his back towards Kurasame and started to leave.

“Commander Kurasame… it’s an honor to have you as our CO. Please, even though you’ll forget us, remember that we did this ‘for the future’.”

“I will. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help to you cadets. As a CO, I should’ve—,”

“Don’t be. We Orience citizens have the right to choose how we live and how we die.”

With heavy heart, Tomu took his leave, this would be the last time he will be seeing Kurasame if everything was going according to plan. Just as Tomu disappeared into the night, Kurasame tended to Izana and Miura’s wound, they appeared to be fine, it turned out that after knocking them out, Faia and his colleagues gave them a sleeping potion, ensuring that they wouldn’t wake up as Class First went on their fateful mission.

“Sleeping potion, huh? These cadets really planned this to the letter.” Kurasame sighed.

Finally, at the facility’s doorstep, Tomu reunited with his colleagues. Showered with eagerness, they quietly infiltrated the facility. The facility was ‘unsurprisingly’ nearly empty, because only several personnel were privy to Milites’ true intention, as said by Arecia, even so, there was one they dreaded to appear in this particular facility, the new l’Cie.

As they reached the crossroads, they splitted the team in two as initially planned. Faia, Ayane, and Akira would be handling the demolition while Tomu and Haruka would be handling the Ultima Bomb. Walking around the facility, Faia could see several machineries he never saw before, at one place, there was a strangely shaped machine, it looked like it was still in development as there were several machinery stuff near to it.

“Look at this, guys… ‘Dioaislef’? What kind of name is that?”

Faia chuckled. “Akira, my boy. It’s not ‘Dioaislef’, but ‘Dainsleif’.”

“Whatever. If you ask me… This thing looks ready and not ready at the same time.”

“Well, whatever it will be, the Empire will never have the chance to use it.”

Walking a little further, they finally reached the vulnerable spot of the facility, the fueling depot. Inspecting his surroundings, Faia decided to plant the explosives at one of the large aviation fuel tank. With the charges set, Faia turned his COMM online, attempting to contact Tomu. Strangely, all he heard was a static voice.

Akira suddenly realized. “Guys. My magic… I can’t use magic!”

“What?!” Faia shouted, “is there a Crystal Jammer in here?!”

Ayane frowned. “I don’t know. But our capes should be able to withstand this, right?”

“Yeah, it ‘should’ve’. But I can’t still use magic, what about you two?”

“Our magic’s fine,” Faia said.

“Wait, ‘our’? How did you know Ayane’s magic is fine too?”

Faia’s eyes widen, he wasn’t supposed to say that. But since it was to be their last day to live anyways, Faia confessed about his truth with Ayane and Tomu.

“Arecia’s augmentation, huh? Why I didn’t get that?” Akira smirked.

“Well… it’s, hard to explain, actually.”

Akira smiled. “It’s okay, I’m not jealous. It still didn’t change the fact that you two are my friends, to the end.”

Akira indeed wasn’t jealous, there was no reason for him to be. He was a Class First cadet, they were taught not limited on magic, but also on weaponries, he can still fight, even without magic. But in order to do so, he needed a weapon. Ayane decided to lend him the Gladius, so that he could at least fight to the end if they had to.

“What about you, Ayane?” he asked.

Ayane smirked. “I have a spare weapon. Just you watch.”

“Alright. Break a leg then.”

Leaving the topic behind, they decided to head towards Tomu’s position, the fact that there was a Crystal Jammer in this place made it pointless for them to contact him through the COMM.

Just as they reached the spot where the Ultima Bomb resided, they were immediately welcomed by a rain of electric arrows. Beside the Ultima Bomb, a person called out towards them.

“Welcome, cadets. You think I will let you stand in my way?”

It was none other than the new Militesi l’Cie, Captain Qun’mi Tru’e.

“Y-you?! You’re the new l’Cie!” –Faia conjured his blade— “Where are my friends?!

Qun’mi then aimed her bow towards them, but… it wasn’t her bow, it was Tomu’s bow.

“No! What did you do to my friends?!”

“See for yourselves.” Qun’mi then pointed to the far end of the room, Tomu was there, chained in the wall, bloodied, weakened, probably dying. Beside him, there was someone else, wearing the cape of Class First… but they couldn’t recall who this person was.

Tomu spoke weakly from afar, “I’m sorry… everyone. She was already waiting for… us.”

Qun’mi said, “This boy put up a little fight. I can’t say for the other one, though. She’s pathetic!”

Enraged, Faia charged head on towards Qun’mi, imbuing his blade with fire, he surged on and on and on. But Qun’mi… she was just too calm and collected, she was able to dodge all of Faia’s attacks. Seeing him in trouble, Ayane finally joined into the fray, and soon, Akira joined aswell, putting infinite pressure on the lone Qun’mi.

“Pathetic,” –Qun’mi dodged one of Faia’s attacks— “you call yourself a cadet?”

Faia smirked. “There’s plenty in store for you, Imperial.” In one quick motion, Faia and Ayane warped behind her.

Ayane… who was currently fighting empty handed, suddenly turned the floor into an icy ground, a very slippery one at that. With her powers gathered, she cracked the ice floor with her bare hands, giving her a block of ice, in the shape of a blade.

“Impossible!” Qun’mi shouted, “how did you withstand the jammer?!”

Ayane replied, “Like my friend said… we had plenty in store for you.” She then used the ice blade to disarm Qun’mi. With Tomu’s bow out of her hand, Qun’mi armed herself with her notorious whip blade, brandishing it with electrical current.

Qun’mi laughed. “So am I. Behold my full powers.”

For minutes, the cadets endured Qun’mi’s endless onslaught, only managing to land several hits on her. Apparently, Ayane looked somehow… tired, her turning the place into an icy field seemed to take a toll on her strength. Seeing her seemingly tired, Qun’mi focused her attack towards Ayane, slashing her relentlessly with the electric whipblade, her onslaught was just too much for Ayane, she finally opened her guard, allowing Qun’mi to thrust her whipblade straight towards Ayane’s heart.

“Ayane! No!” Akira shouted. Without hesitation, he surged towards the seemingly vulnerable Qun’mi.

Qun’mi, with her extreme reflexes, realized there was someone surging towards her. In one quick motion, she turned around, swinging her whipblade at the same time. The whipblade slashed Akira straight in his face, knocking him to the ground. Without giving Akira a time to react, she planted her foot in his back, and then… blood splattered all over the place, coming from Akira’s body. Giving the cadets no mercy, Qun’mi finished Akira, and soon, he was erased from everyone’s memory.

Faia was just stoned by the sight, he too was weakened by the fight. Seemingly left with no option, he burned his own body and surged towards Qun’mi with all his might.

“What stunt are you trying to pull by burning yourself?!”

“I’ll let you in on a secret.” Faia was somehow able to keep his calm although his body was literally on fire, Qun’mi finally realized that these cadets she fought were no ordinary ones. “I’m on a suicide mission to save everyone. Your pitiful excuse of an Empire will never rule Orience!”

Not letting Qun’mi out of his range, Faia made her suffer through his inferno. Just as Qun’mi tried to escape, Faia would just warp towards her, continuing to burn her with the heat. Despite seemingly fed with infinite strength, Faia’s body started to crumble. He felt as if his body begged him to stop and just die instead, but Faia still fought on and on, still wanting to finish what he started.

Qun’mi herself was still on full strength, she was a l’Cie, after all. Noticing Faia’s body started to fail, Qun’mi slid past him, ignoring the burning heat, she slashed at Faia’s legs. Overflowing with rage, vengeance, and power, Qun’mi held him by the throat just as he was starting to fall. She then threw him next to the Ultima Bomb, with his flames eventually extinguished.

“Is this it? Have we failed… to save, everyone?” Faia mumbled. It seemed that all hope was lost, with Ayane and Tomu were the only ones he could remember, until Faia glanced towards the left side of the Ultima Bomb. Actually, Tomu ‘did’ his part of duty, he managed to somehow slip the reversed jammer inside the bomb, unbeknownst to Qun’mi. Glancing towards the dying Tomu, he gave Faia a thumbs up as he realized that Faia was aware about it.

Suddenly, Qun’mi stomped at Faia’s back. “Sucks, right? To fail your mission like this?”

Faia chuckled. “Yeah, about that.” With all his might, Faia managed to break free from Qun’mi’s pin. Grabbing the detonator from his pocket, Faia wasted no time in pressing the fateful button that would change the history.

Suddenly, explosions could be heard from the far side from the facility, at the same time, Tomu broke free from his chains and detonated the jammer, turning the Ultima Bomb into nothing but a pile of metal shaped like a bomb. The Ultima Bomb… had died.

“No! What have you done?!” Qun’mi shouted.

“We won, and you lose. Deal with it,” Faia said, laughing.

Within a matter of seconds, the explosion reached the Ultima Bomb chamber, burning everything inside. Qun’mi, thoroughly defeated, managed to escape the facility using her l’Cie powers to teleport her out of harm. As for Faia and the others, they couldn’t escape the inferno. The explosion was so great that the roof was blown off the sky. It turned out that, it was already dawn as the smoke cleared.

Hours earlier,

Tsurugi and the rest of the team finally reached Kurasame’s spot, he was apparently still guarding the unconscious Izana and Miura and gave up the chase on the Class First cadets.

Tsurugi asked, “Kurasame? Are you hurt?”

“No. This is only a slight injury they gave me.”

“Why did you gave up the chase? They should be within your grasp.”

Kurasame narrowed his eyes. “I cannot leave these two in the open. Besides, they have nowhere left to go, all we had to do is to go there, now.”

“All righty then, let’s get on with it.”

Motioning towards two of his men, Tsurugi ordered them to carry Izana and Miura to safety as the rest headed towards the facility to pursue Class First cadets. Slowly walking towards the facility, they spotted a figure waiting for them, in the dark, facing towards them. After moving further cautiously, it was revealed to be the Marshall himself.

“Marshall?!” Qator said in a shocked tone. “Shouldn’t they carry you to safety? What are you doing here?”

“I stand here on my own accord to halt you from going further.”

“Why?”

“Qun’mi is already on her way to pursue them. We better not interfere with the l’Cie as it is dangerous for you all to do so.”

The others frowned while Kurasame seemingly calm.

“The l’Cie? Why didn’t they do that earlier before sending us here?” One of the soldiers mumbled, feeling displeased that they just marched all this way for nothing.

Qator said, “Very well, Marshall. What should we do now?”

“We go back. I need to be at Togoreth by this morning and I’m way behind schedule.” Glancing towards the Rubrans, Cid said, “I’m sure you Rubrans can escort me there after I’m done with my other business back at Meroe.”

“Of course, Marshall. We’ll escort you,” Kurasame said.

Deep inside, Cid was relieved that the task force would be unable to discover the truth about that facility. But, little did he know, Kurasame did knew about it, but not wanting to draw unwanted attention, Kurasame played along and could only hope that his cadets succeeded in preventing the catastrophe to happen.


	36. The Future We Paved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faia and his colleagues succeeded in preventing the Ultima Bomb from being used, but... they are dying. Their deeds... will not be remembered as they will be known as traitors instead of heroes.

**Gla. XVI 837 R.G.**

Faia amazingly woke up after the inferno, with the sun blinding his eyes, he glanced around his surroundings. His head hurted too much that he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t do so, his strength was sapped into nothing that he couldn’t even speak anymore, all he could do was to move around, but not for long as blood poured out of his stomach.

Searching through the ruins, he found a cape belonging to a Class First cadet, looking forward, he could see Ayane leaned towards the wall next to the three Class First cadets, or what was left of them as Faia couldn’t tell who they were.

Ayane glanced upwards. “Faia?! You’re still alive!”

Miraculously, Faia was able to talk, “Yeah. We won, right?”

“Yes. We won. But… soon, we will die, Faia.”

Faia sat next to her. “We were prepared for this.”

“You’re right. All for the future, yeah?”

“All for the future, yeah.”

Hours before, just as the inferno burned the whole facility, Ayane used what was left of her strength to drag her fallen classmates towards her, including Faia himself. With Arecia’s voice mumbling inside her “ _Your souls had infinite possibilities, and now you’ve all chosen your path_ ”, she concentrated her mind and soul to conjure a massive solid wall of ice surrounding herself and her comrades, sparing them from the inferno to at least stay alive… to see the light of day, one last time.

“So, you did just that, huh? I’m impressed. So what… you’re the Ice Reaper 2.0, now?”

Ayane chuckled. “Guess so.”

Faia sighed a breath of relief. “Guess I’m going to rest for a bit. See you soon, Ayane.” Pleased with what he achieved, Faia closed his eyes, for the last time.

Moments later, glancing beside her, Ayane had already lost her memory of the boy who just passed on beside her.

“Reon, Izana, Miura. The rest is up to you.” She then followed Faia’s lead and closed her eyes, drawing her last breath as she did.

And thus, Class First of Akademeia was no more. Silence filled the air as nobody arrived at the scene until the sun was above the facility that Militesi recovery task force finally arrived. The task force was led by Lieutenant Faith, alongside Marshall Cid’s surrogate son, Lean Hampelmann, who would soon witness the true horrors of war.

“I don’t like doing this to you, but now you will learn the horrors of war, Lean.”

“Yes, Lieutenant Icelar. What should I do?”

“Inspect the bodies of those cadets and see if you can find their identities.”

“(Identities? Did their nation lose it or something?) Yes, Lieutenant, I will.”

Lean was known as an intelligent boy, his heart filled with curiosity why would these “best of the best” cadets went on a suicide mission, knowing their nations would finally be at peace. Furthermore, all Lean knew was that this facility was “supposed” to be deactivated already, these cadets wouldn’t just throw away their lives for nothing. “Was it vengeance, that they seek?” he mumbled, “or, was it something else?”

Lean kneeled at their remains, trying to find something to tell who these people were. Every nation created their own version of knowing tags, in which Lean knew these cadets must’ve brought it with them. Unsurprisingly, 4 of these dead cadets didn’t have theirs, except for one of them.

“Let’s see, her name was… Ayane Kurayami.” Inside her right palm, there was a note, Lean immediately read it after putting on his glasses, “ _The future awaits. History will remember us as traitors. But when the truth unfolds, we will be known as heroes._ ”

Lean was immediately shaken. Why would they claim themselves as heroes? With this note, Lean decided to keep her knowing tag for himself, for now. “I will discover the truth about this, Rubran. Until then, sleep well.” Leaving the ruins behind, the recovery team was unable to recover anything useful from the site.

Later that day, the feast had finally begun. Attended by all of the leaders of the four nations, they cheered on the peace they finally secured after more than 10 years of bitter rivalry, wars, and politics among them.

If only that peace would last forever.


	37. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the peace treaty secured, what future awaits Miura, Izana, and Kurasame? With their hazy memories, they wondered what awaits them as they continue their normal activities.

**Gla. XVI 837 R.G.**

Later that dusk, as the feast was still going on, Miura and Izana finally came to their senses back at the Akademeia infirmary. After being released from the infirmary, they both headed towards the terrace, gazing towards the orange skies of the peaceful era.

Glancing towards his new indigo cape, he said, “Strange, isn’t it? Since when I was transferred back to Class Second?”

Miura held her head. “I don’t know… my head, hurts. It’s as if a big piece has fallen off from me.”

“Have Commander Kurasame told you what happened while we’re still in the infirmary?”

Words spread around Akademeia about Miura and Izana’s brave deeds on their attempt to stop the _traitors_ from breaching the peace treaty everyone worked so hard on realizing it. Upon their return, they were hailed as heroes, despite them being unable to stop them from destroying the _Steelworks 07._

Miura shook her head. “Funny, wasn’t it? I thought we were supposed to be the traitors.”

“Yeah. About the traitors, the Empire was kind enough to return their bodies to us. They allowed us to bury them here with full honors.”

“So I’ve heard.” Taking a deep breath, Miura remembered a part of their deeds before their deaths.

“I’ll visit their graves later, would you come with me? Even though we couldn’t remember them, I hope we could somehow hear their last words there.”

“I will come with you.”

Later that night, they headed towards the cemetery. They could easily find their graves, as there was a Blue Phoenix flag planted beside the graves specially made for fallen Class First cadets. As they approached their graves, there was someone standing beside the flag.

She turned around. “You must be looking for them.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“They were special, Miura. They had the privilege to choose how they die, unlike the other human beings who only obeyed the Crystal’s will,” she said.

As expected, both Izana and Miura couldn’t comprehend what she said, and thus, remaining silent.

“I don’t expect you to understand. I’ll take my leave now.”

Just as Arecia left, both Izana and Miura kneeled beside the graves, there were five gravestones that were different than the others, as their last names were excluded in the stones.

“This must be their graves. Faia, Ayane, Tomu, Akira, and Haruka.”

Izana sighed. “So I’ve heard. Before their betrayal, they got rid of their documents of their full identities.”

Miura changed the topic. “Izana, so we’re the only ones who _partly_ knew about the truth.”

“I’m aware of that, Representative. This peace, won’t last long. I just know it.”

“Yes. But… thanks to these brave souls, they secured the peace for a little longer.”

Izana’s eyes filled with determination. “And now, it’s up to us to fulfill whatever it was they hoped for the future.”

“For the future… yes.”

“What will you do until then, Representative?”

After paying their last respects, they left the cemetery. The names of Faia, Ayane, Tomu, Akira, and Haruka quickly faded away like a flash of thunder from everyone’s memory entirely. With no records of their background survived, they were remembered as traitors… at least for the time being.

Meanwhile, at Arecia’s office, she was holding a large tome. Nobody knew what it contained, as only Arecia herself knew about it, in fact, nobody knew that tome existed whatsoever. Upon reaching the last page, Arecia closed her eyes, the tome appeared as if it was speaking with her.

“ _I see. You were indeed stepping stones for the future, Faia Nishimura, Ayane Kurayami, and Tomu Takeda._ ” Strangely, she knew their last names.

Arecia then closed her eyes again.

“ _Yes. I will see to it that your wishes are fulfilled, through my children. Until then, sleep well, my beloved cadets,_ ” as she said so, she seemed to shed a small tear, for their unfortunate fates.

“ _There will be no more cadets like you. My children will be stronger than you, but, you possessed one thing my children could not possess, the absence of ‘fear of death’. The one who trained them to be so is no longer among the living… and there will be no more people like him. Unless…_ ”

The next day, Arecia visited trainee class number two. She was greeted by their class leader. It was still early in the morning, so the class wasn’t that crowded just yet. After being greeted by the class leader, she directed Arecia towards Reon’s seat. Reon… was different, that day, the cheerful Reon they always knew had been sitting in silence ever since he entered the classroom.

Just as the class leader took her leave, Arecia mumbled to herself, “ _So you did lose all your past memories, Miyu. Or should I call you… Myuria?_ ”

Arecia then sat beside Reon, he was indeed quiet, he didn’t even notice that Arecia was sitting beside him.

“Child, are you feeling well?”

Finally noticing Arecia beside her, he said, “Doctor Arecia? What brings you to the trainee class?”

“I heard that you’re not feeling well. Please take this.” She handed Reon a blue ribbon, a _familiar_ blue ribbon, to be exact.

“A ribbon? This looks familiar.”

Arecia smiled. “It is.”

“I don’t know why you gave me this…” –Reon suddenly smiled— “but, I think I feel better somehow after looking at this ribbon. Thank you, Doctor.”

“Your welcome, child.”

The blue ribbon. It was none other than Ayane’s. She left it on Arecia’s office the day before her fateful mission. Ayane wanted to leave Reon a memento, so that at least he would soon overcome his _strange unexplainable_ grief after her death. It worked indeed, as apparently Reon eventually left his grief behind and moved forward after being given that blue ribbon, although rather sadly due to the fact that ribbon belonged to someone more important than the one he currently interested on.

Later that afternoon, after Miura’s lecture session was over, she walked towards the terrace to enjoy the clear blue skies on that day. Her heart ever filled with so many questions the second she woke up at the infirmary the other day, she had lost so much that she seemed to distant herself towards several of her friends. Thankfully, her friends acknowledged her feelings, they knew she was still shaken from that fateful mission.

“ _What will I do with my life… should I live my life peacefully, or should I continue my path and become a Commander, like Mr. Kurasame?_

“ _What should I do… Faia… Nishimura? The letter you left me… you must’ve known me so well and… loved me so much._

“ _If only I could remember you… I surely wouldn’t have to endure this painful emptiness._ ”

Meanwhile at the chocobo ranch, Izana was petting one of his new chocobo. Sharing the same boat as Miura, Izana’s heart was also filled with so many questions. He was still 16 at that time, he remembered before the fateful mission that he was the leader of an elite chocobo task force, working regularly with Class First. He remembered his primary motivation to take part in Class First missions was to… impress them. But who were the peoples he tried to impress? He could no longer remember any of them.

“ _What should I name this one?_ _I think I should name you S.S. Over the Rainbow… yes… Machina would love this… you’ll have to, brother._

“ _… and those guys from Class First… I hope you’re happy seeing me like this… When I graduate… I will become the finest Legion commander in history._ ”

Also sharing the same burden in his mind, Kurasame stood in front of the Blue Phoenix flag at the cemetery. Ever the quiet one, Kurasame was lost in thought as he was kneeling in front of the graves of the traitors, he couldn’t help but to think that similar thing had happened in his past, during his time as a cadet.

“ _They were the same as me… victims of the politics, I hated politics all my life and now I hate it even further. Was it truly worth their sacrifice? They had chosen how they died, but… they hadn’t chosen how they lived. All they did in their lives were fighting, killing, and hurting another human being._

_“We were the same… but like before, I survived. I remembered, that I had a promise to someone to use my abilities to teach the future generations and... it appears that I failed. I was leading Class First at the start of this year, and today… Class First had no one left..._

“ _People called me a hero in the past and the present. But in the end, I am weak, I couldn’t even save my own cadets I should’ve been protecting. What am I going to do with my life?_ ”

Unshaken with the feeling of loss, he decided to continue to teach the future generations for the rest of his career, he might’ve lost all of his cadets of this generation, but everybody knew that it wasn’t his fault. His answer was found when he was called by the Cadetmaster few days later, she simply said that Class First would be reinstated, and they needed cadets to do so. One more thing the future Class First cadets needed is someone to lead them.

“I hereby reinstated you, Commander Kurasame Susaya, as Class First Commanding Officer.”

“Thank you for your trust in me, Cadetmaster,” Kurasame said.

She gave him a pat on his shoulders. “Your welcome. Now go forth, and find the cadets worthy of becoming Class First cadet.”

“I will.”

Kurasame wouldn’t do it alone, he would soon be assisted by several familiar figures.


	38. The New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years passed by like the wind, ever blowing so quickly that nobody noticed it. With years passed, several new players stepped in the game of Orience's mystery.

**Ign. XII 841 R.G.**

After the celebration of the new year, everyone went back to their respective business. This year, Akademeia would have a new instructor joining their ranks, on the age of 22, Miura graduated from the special academy, following Kurasame’s path. Wearing the proud uniform of an instructor, Miura walked with pure determination towards Chancellor Khalia Chival’s office.

“From this day forth, you are Commanding Officer Ai Miura. I hope you will use your experience as Representative to guide the next generation.”

“I will, Chancellor.”

Khalia then handed her a large tome. “Currently, there are no vacant position for the classes. For now, you’ll teach a specific subject of military tactics and politics to all classes.”

“Yes, Chancellor.”

“When the time’s right, I will do everything in my power to ensure you have a class of your own.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Upon leaving the Chancellor’s chamber, Miura went to her usual spot in the terrace. The sight of Akademeia cadets wandering back and forth sure did bring some memories during her time as a cadet, even though it had been only two years ever since her graduation, it felt like forever for Miura.

That day, several important members of the Legion attended a meeting at the Central Command regarding an alarming military activity at the Militesi territory. They were indeed cannot be trusted even though the four nations were currently at peaceful state. One of the commanders, the captain of the 1st Legion’s cavalry regiment, planned to take some load off by going to the terrace to have some fresh air. In there, he met a familiar figure he hadn’t seen for a long time.

Immediately recognizing the figure, he said, “Commander Miura. Long time no see.”

“Izana! Is that really you?!”

Izana chuckled. “Of course it’s me. I’m Captain Izana Kunagiri of the 1st Legion now.”

“Okay, Captain Izana. It’s great to see you.”

“You too, Commander Representative.” Izana joked on her name.

Meanwhile at the main hall, the long awaited verdict of the appointment of the new Cadet Representative was about to come, it has been 2 years that the cadets didn’t have a Cadet Representative ever since Miura’s graduation that year.

The main hall was fully crowded with cadets spanning from Class First to Twelfth gathered in the main hall to hear the final verdict as afternoon arrived. The head committee, Class Ninth cadet Naghi Minatsuchi stepped up on the stage. After minutes of awful noise, the crowd finally went silent.

“After tallying the vote… we have our victor. Leaving the competitor behind by 59 votes, a large margin, yes. The position of Cadet Representative goes to… Miyu Kagirohi! Hailing from Class Second!”

The crowd cheered and applauded. Tallying a total vote of 221 cadets, Miyu Kagirohi beat her competitor, hailing from Class First, Ryo Takatsugi, rather decisively.

After the crowd dispersed, Miyu headed to the ready room, her friends promised to treat her should she be the one who won the vote.

“Hope you’ll like this ‘between truth and lies’ sandwich, Miyu,” Ryo said.

“Thank you, Ryo. You didn’t hold a grudge against me for this vote, right?”

“No. Not at all. You won it fair and square, Miyu… or should I say, Representative?” He said in a sarcastic tone.

“Alright then. Let’s enjoy this meal together, we all deserved it!” Miyu said in excitement.

They enjoyed their meal, it was a wonderful meal indeed, the between truth and lies sandwich was indeed a favorite amongst the cadets and instructors alike, including the long time Class First Commanding Officer, Kurasame Susaya himself.

As they finished their meal, one by one they started to leave as they started to feel sleepy, thankfully, there were no more lectures that day, they could go wherever they wanted for the rest of the day. As the last sleepy person left the table, it was only Miyu that was left on the table when one of her old friend decided to join her, this friend of hers wore the proud light blue cape of Class First.

“So, Representative. I see that you’re still holding on to that ribbon I gave you long ago.”

She smiled. “Of course. This ribbon was a beautiful present you gave me. I will always hold on to it.”

“Well, okay then. So, where are you going after this?” he asked.

“I’m feeling sleepy like the guys. I think I’ll go to sleep for the rest of this afternoon.”

He chuckled. “Alright then, have a nice day, Representative Miyu.”

“You too, Reon.”

The story of Agito cadets was not over just yet. It just entered a new era.


	39. Epilogue: The Beginning of an End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their Ultima Bomb plan ended in failure, Marshall Cid still have one more card to play, and it's even scarier than before.

Epilogue: The Beginning of the End

Ign. XXI 841 R.G.

After a full year of restless days and nights, Milites finally made their progress on the new Ultima Weapon project. This terrifying weapon’s effect was still unknown, even to the Militesi public themselves. The only slight hint about this new weapon was that it should to be even more terrifying than the Ultima Bomb itself. With the Ultima Bomb forever gone, Cid resorted to his contingency plan to realize this project that he _honestly_ hoped he never had to use.

“Good work, Qun’mi. Now we have a way to rule Orience once again. Freeing everyone from the foul play of the gods and their Crystals.”

From afar, Lean seemed upset with the progress of their newly invented ultimate weapon. Lean was one of the figures that knew what this Ultima Weapon was all about.

“ _Father, did you really have to go over the distance just to do this? This is a war crime if you really deploy this Ultima Weapon of yours to the war._ ”

The Ultima Weapon… wasn’t just a weapon. It was… a bio-weapon.

_To be continued…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The arts belonged to Square Enix, this art is only my edit as a cover on the upcoming part II of this fanfic.


	40. Extra Chapter I: Profiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains the profiles of the characters in this fic.

Warriors of Vermillion I Characters Profile

Faia Nishimura

D.O.B.: Ignismens XV 819 R.G.

P.O.B.: Meroe.

Height: 5’9”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Silver.

Eye Color: Red.

Weapon: Obsidian Blade.

Likes: Mi-Go’s Salad, fire magic, Miura.

Dislikes: Being in a lower class, complex technologies, Milites.

Ayane Kurayami

D.O.B.: Glacemens II 820 R.G.

P.O.B.: Akademeia.

Height: 5’4”.

Gender: Female.

Hair Color: Black.

Eye Color: Blue.

Weapon: Gladius Short Sword.

Likes: Female Accessories, ice magic, her classmates.

Dislikes: History lectures, “Between truth and lies sandwich”, being treated like a damsel in distress, Milites.

Tomu Takeda

D.O.B.: Petramens XXI 820 R.G.

P.O.B.: Akademeia.

Height: 5’7”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Black.

Eye Color: Yellow.

Weapon: Stone Poleaxe, Spellbow

Likes: Knowledges, Books, Weaponries.

Dislikes: Being beaten by a fellow intellectual, fire magic, Milites.

Jenifa Nakahara

D.O.B.: Ignismens XIII 821 R.G.

P.O.B.: Iscah.

Height: 5’3”.

Gender: Female.

Hair Color: Black.

Eye Color: Red.

Weapon: Obsidian Sabre.

Likes: History lectures, Faia (?), Concordian culture.

Dislikes: Milites, Marshall Cid, her past (?).

Ai Miura

D.O.B.: Terramens I 818 R.G.

P.O.B.: Akademeia.

Height: 5’5”.

Gender: Female.

Hair Color: Gold.

Eye Color: Brown.

Weapon: Shining Silver Sabre.

Likes: White chocolate, Military tactics, Politics, Akademeia, Faia (?).

Dislikes: Being treated with disrespect, lazy classmates, failure, being called Representative instead of her name.

Kurasame Susaya

D.O.B.: Glacemens VII 816 R.G.

P.O.B.: Aqvi.

Height: 5’10”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Dark purple.

Eye Color: Light green.

Weapon: Iceblade.

Likes: Between truth and lies sandwich, Ice magic, Aoi Tomoshibi.

Dislikes: Being disrespected, being underestimated, Milites, Concordia, Politics.

Tsurugi Satoshi

D.O.B.: Caelusmens XIV 813 R.G.

P.O.B.: Akademeia.

Height: 6’0”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Blonde.

Eye Color: Purple.

Weapon: Platinum Spear.

Likes: Leadership, Military, The Evocati, Peace, Healing magic.

Dislikes: Being disrespected.

Reon Kurayami

D.O.B.: Sileomens V 823 R.G.

P.O.B.: Akademeia.

Height: 5’9”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Black.

Eye Color: Brown.

Weapon: -

Likes: Being friends, Military tactics, fire magic, Miyu (?).

Dislikes: Overspicy foods, math lectures, Milites (?).

Miyu Kagirohi

D.O.B.: Pyromens VIII 823 RG.

P.O.B.: Mi-Go

Height: 5’2”

Gender: Female.

Hair Color: Silver.

Eye Color: Purple.

Weapon: -

Likes: Being around her friends, Military tactics & politics, The Blue Ribbon _someone_ gave her.

Dislikes: Failure, being regarded too highly, Math lectures (but she was really good in it).

Izana Kunagiri

D.O.B.: Ventusmens VIII 821 R.G.

P.O.B.: Rokol.

Height: 5’9”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Black.

Eye Color: Green.

Weapon: Standard Issued Sword.

Likes: Machina, Chocobos, Class Second, Miura (?).

Dislikes: Failure, His brother getting better than him (?), magic.

Morse Axelsen

D.O.B.: Pyromens VI 816 R.G.

P.O.B.: Ingram.

Height: 6’0”.

Gender: Male.

Hair Color: Blonde.

Eye Color: Red.

Weapon: The Lizzie Sniper Rifle, The Semaphorus Assault Rifle, The Morse Twin Katana.

Likes: Qun’mi (?), Rubrum, Justice, Class First cadets (?).

Dislikes: Milites, His father, Killing for nothing.

Aoi Tomoshibi

D.O.B.: Aquamens XXVIII 815 R.G.

P.O.B.: Mi-Go.

Height: 5’4”.

Gender: Female.

Hair Color: Blonde.

Eye Color: Rose.

Weapon: -

Likes: Kurasame, Mi-Go’s Green Tea.

Dislikes: Heartbreak, being left alone, politics (?).


	41. Extra Chapter II: Inside Leon's Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains my experience while I'm writing this fic

Faia was at first written as Reon’s brother, and his name was actually Akira Kurayami before finally changed to Faia Nishimura.

There was a fifth member of Faia’s gang, named Maiku. Same as Jenifa, he didn’t receive Arecia’s augmentation unlike Faia, Ayane, and Tomu.

The code crimson short-term leader, Mizuki Akechi, was supposed to be holding a larger role than she was at the final version of the fic. Kurayami siblings were consisted of three, and Mizuki was one of them, alongside Akira and Reon. Her name was not Mizuki back then, I forgot what her actual name was.

Miura’s name was Ai Minatsuchi, giving her a connection with Naghi. As a result, Naghi played a larger role before.

The plot at first centered around Arecia’s risky experimentation on the trio, it was the same experiment, them having the ability to absorb phantoma, no longer tied to the crystal and such. But due to the nature of “risky” experiment, these three were gradually losing their mind over time, or to put it simply, their minds turned fragile.

Class First only participated in one large battle on the early version of the fic, and they had 4-5 casualties on that battle (Meroe).

Tsurugi held smaller role than in the final version.

Faia (Akira at that time), was captured during the skirmish at Lorica, and the member of this mission was supposed to be 4 instead of 8 (Faia, Jenifa, Tomu, and Maiku). Jenifa was killed by the l’Cie Semaphorus, Maiku survived and he started to slowly discover the truth of Faia and his 2 friends by seeing how they fight.

Semaphorus was named Marcus before I finished this story, but I had this crazy idea where Axelsen family have names based on military communication methods (Morse, Semaphore). Like the final version, he was forbidden to step out of Ingram after his incident earlier, he was ordered to focus on their mind control project.

Not all Class First were involved in Code Crimson during the early stages of the writing, only Faia, Tomu, and Ayane, Maiku, Jenifa, and several unnamed cadets were involved at first.

After the capture of Faia, considering his fragile mind, he was successfully manipulated by Marcus to serve the Empire, using the mind control mentioned earlier. Not remembering his past, Faia was able to rose through the ranks of the Empire. After finally finding out his betrayal, finally, all Class First cadets joined the Code Crimson, including Kurasame.

Izana did not exist in the earlier stage of the writing.

Miyu held a larger role, as a trainee, she helped in designing Ayane’s ultimate weapon, the enhancer blade where one can imbue it with magic.

There were no romance elements whatsoever in the earlier stage of writing.

Aoi did not exist in this fic at first, but as I added several romance spices, I decided to add her.

Morse did not help Kurasame and Rubrum whatsoever, he only played a smaller role at first, and he survived through the story too.

Qator, Qun’mi, and Ines only played a cameo role, while Charon, Faith, Lean weren’t even existed in any part of the story.

Enra had a cameo (yes, THAT Enra), serving as young Machina’s rival at his trainee time.

Before going to the final mission, Ayane, Tomu, Mizuki, Miura, and one cadet whom’ve I forgotten went on a scouting mission to plan their assault properly.

On that scouting mission, they were compromised, ultimately having Tomu and the unnamed cadet killed in battle. The one who killed Tomu was Faia himself, Tomu was winning at first, but in desperation, Faia used his fire magic towards Tomu’s face, ultimately blinding him. Not giving Tomu time to recover, Faia finished him swiftly, but not before wondering how he could use magic.

Kurasame led 8 cadets (Ayane, Mizuki, Miura, Maiku, and four cadets I forgot who) on the fateful mission to hunt Faia.

Before going to the final battle, Maiku was manipulated by the Commandant, the latter gave him a false story where Faia’s betrayal had something to do with Arecia’s experiment with her having Faia’s mind fragile, thus giving him a chance to be brainwashed by the Empire.

With that false story, Maiku accepted a mission to kill Faia and Ayane, to end Arecia’s apparently dangerous stunt once and for all (putting his nation above his friends, like Kotetsu).

Kurasame split the team in two (one to deal with Faia, and the other to demolish the facility). The other team successfully planted the bombs without resistance, while Kurasame’s team got the short end of the stick where 2 of the cadets he led died. With the other two injured, he single-handedly disarmed the base, but in the end, he was injured heavily, and thus he was carried home by the two injured cadets, leaving Ayane, Maiku, Miura, and Mizuki in the facility.

During the final battle, Faia killed Mizuki (who was actually his own sister at that time). In the end, it was Ayane that successfully subdued him. He was thoroughly beaten that his memory somehow resurfaced to his true self. Filled with guilt, Faia accepted his fate to be brought back to Akademeia and to be executed. But as said before, Maiku’s mission is not over yet. Not realizing his true intention, Miura got herself killed by Maiku (she wasn’t his target, but she was unfortunate enough to be with them that Maiku deemed it necessary to kill her). Ayane tried to fight him, but Maiku actually had planned everything to the letter, ultimately, Ayane was heavily injured, Faia was still tied, leaving him no option to fight back.

With Ayane’s last ounce of strength, she cut Faia loose (after declaring that she loved him), and the final battle between Faia and Maiku begun at that point. Faia successfully killed Maiku, but Faia himself was dying, he thought about absorbing their phantoma to save himself, but he decided not to, he died soon after.

Once Kurasame woke up, he heard the news about the facility’s destruction and the death of the traitor, Faia (Akira Kurayami). With no memories of them remained, Kurasame was drowned in guilt once again, having been unable to rescue his cadets (the same as the final story). In this version, Kurasame resigned from being instructor and joined the Legion, he is appointed as the commander of the 2nd “Ice Reaper” Legion, additionally he is to be the youngest Legion commander existed.

The epilogue part was kinda the same, but Ultima Bomb survived, and thus planned to be used in the sequel of this fiction.


End file.
